Latia

Latia is a genus of very small, air-breathing freshwater snails or limpets, aquatic pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Chilinoidea. Latia is the only genus in the family Latiidae. Species in this genus are the only freshwater bioluminescent molluscs in the world. The family Latiidae has been classified within the superfamily Chilinoidea, itself belonging to the clade Hygrophila within the informal group Basommatophora in the informal group Pulmonata (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). There are no subfamilies in the family Latiidae (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). Latia is the only genus in the family Latiidae, in other words Latiidae is a monotypic family and Latia is the type genus of the family Latiidae. This genus was previously placed instead in a larger family of freshwater limpets, the Ancylidae. This genus is endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. This genus lives in clean running streams and rivers.