Anatomy & Physiology

P. gardineri has two shields; a head shield and a posterior shield. The head and posterior shield are approximately equal in length and the posterior shield has two tail lobes that come off the end. The parapodia cover the sides of the body and assist in movement.

This group lacks the useful taxonomic feature that most gastropods possess, the radula and jaw plates. The mouth is located at the anterior end of the tubular buccal bulb and has a strong, muscular wall to rapidly suck in the prey (Lobo-da-Cunha et al. 2009). The nervous system in Philinposis is very similar among species; a thick cord from the right visceral ganglion branches with one cord connecting to the supraesophageal ganglion (Rudman 1972a). The other branch runs out to a small ganglionic thickening from which nerves issue to innervate the genital gland mass (Rudman 1972a).