Since 1993 there have been three major works dealing with the Family Ranellidae. These include Ranellidae & Personidae Of The World (Thomas Henning & Jens Hemmen - 1993), Ranellidae And Personidae: A Classification Of Recent Species (Betty Jean Piech - 1995) and Indo-West Pacific Ranellidae, Bursidae and Personidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) (Alan G. Beu - 1998). The works of Henning & Hemmen and Piech generally agreed in the generic placement of the species within the family although, as could be expected, there were some differences of opinion in regards to the validity of some species/subspecies. Our (Frank & Lee) previous treatment of this family followed Henning & Hemmen and included species newly described since that publication.

    In the latest work, Beu proposes significant taxonomic changes from the earlier works to include:

• Biplex is treated as a full genus instead of a subgenus of Gyrineum (adopted herein).
• Gyrineum is treated as a genus with no subgenera (adopted herein).
• Gelagna is treated as a subgenus of the genus Cymatium vice a full genus (adopted herein).
• Linatella is treated as a subgenus of the genus Cymatium vice a full genus (adopted herein).
• Genus Cymatium species within extant subgenera are reassigned to another extant subgenus. Newly described species (and resurrected species) are placed within those subgenera. We are unable to appreciate the rationale for these measures and have retained the traditional system.

    Our readers may have differing opinions in regards to our taxonomic treatment of this family. It is believed that the updated material (as presented) is the proper way to treat this family at the present time.

    The shells pictured are not shown to scale. The normal size range for each species (if known) appears at the bottom of the page containing the image.

Ranellidae Genera