Staffordiidae is a poorly understood[3] family, because it occurs only in the Dafla Hills area of India. The fauna and flora of that area has not been researched sufficiently.[3]
The distribution of the Staffordiidae includes only India in the Dafla Hills.[3]
This area is close to northern margin of the Indian plate.[3] The historical area of origin of the Staffordiidae has not been researched because the coastal area in southern Asia where it is found became uninhabitable[3] after the Indian Plate and Eurasian Platecollided 50 to 55 million years ago. The original ancestral area of limacoid families is thought to be the Palaearctic region and south-eastern Asia.[3] Thus, it has been hypothesized that the Staffordiidae colonized its current area from the southern margin of the Asian part of the Eurasian Plate during the Oligocene period.[3]
The generic nameStaffordia is in honor of Brigadier-General Stafford,[who?] who was in command of the punitive force which entered the Dafla Hills for the first time in the winter of 1874–1875.[6]
The foot of Staffordia is pointed.[6] The peripodial margin is simple with a narrow pale margin.[6] There are small right and left shell-lobes.[6]
Reproductive systemofStaffordia: the dart-sac is small, globose, with a long cord-like attachment to a coronal gland.[6] The penis is simple.[6] The spermatheca is long.[6]
The radulaofStaffordia has aculeate lateral teeth.[6]
^Barker G. M. (2001) Gastropods on Land: Phylogeny, Diversity and Adaptive Morphology. 1–146. In: Barker G. M. (ed.) (2001) The biology of terrestrial molluscs. CABI Publishing, Oxon, UK, cited pages: 139–144. ISBN0-85199-318-4.
^ abcdefghijkGodwin-Austen H. H. (1907). Land and freshwater mollusca of India, including South Arabia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Burma, Pegu, Tenasserim, Malaya Peninsula, Ceylon and other islands of the Indian Ocean; Supplementary to Masers Theobald and Hanley's Conchologica Indica. Taylor and Francis, London. 2: page 184, plate CXIII.
Bouchet P., Rocroi J.P., Hausdorf B., Kaim A., Kano Y., Nützel A., Parkhaev P., Schrödl M. & Strong E.E. (2017). Revised classification, nomenclator and typification of gastropod and monoplacophoran families. Malacologia. 61(1-2): 1-526
