The anatomy of the prosobranch Trichotropis borealis Broderip & Sowerby, and the systematic position of the Capulidae

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The anatomy of some members of the family Calyptraeidae has been adequately described by previous workers (Kleinsteuber, 1913; Giese, 1915; Moritz, 1938), and aconsiderable amount of information has been published on the feeding and the unusual reproductive activities of Crepidula (Orton, 1912; Coe, 1944) Of the anatomy and way of living of the members of those other families of gastropods (Trichotropidae and Capulidae) that Thiele (1929) has unitedwith the calyptraeids in his Stirps Calyptraeacea, much less is known. Orton (1912) and Yonge (1938) have described the feeding mechanism of Capulus ungaricus; and the anatomy of Thyca, a parasitic member of the same family, has been briefly described by Koehler & Vaney (1912). Nothing seems to be known of the anatomy or way of life of members of the Trichotropidae. Yet an investigation of some of these points seems overdue in the lightof Lebour's discovery (1937) that Capulus passes through an echinospira larval stage. This stage does not occur in other members of the Calyptraeacea, although present in two other groups of the mesogastropods, the Lamellariacea and the Cypraeacea. The idea at once presents itself that the capulids may perhaps be more accurately classified as members of one or other of these two groups rather than as members of the Calyptraeacea. The work recorded in the following pages was directed towards answering this question, and would suggest that the original classification is the more correct. The names used are those of Winckworth (1932).