Bullina roseana
Rudman, 1971

Order: CEPHALASPIDEA
Superfamily: ACTEONOIDEA
Family: Bullinidae

DISTRIBUTION

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

PHOTO

Holotype - dredged alive from 15m, SW of Waewaetorea Is., Bay of Islands, NE New Zealand. September 1969. Shell height 12.5mm. National Museum, Wellington M24090. Photo: M.C. Miller.

The animal is translucent white, with the brownish oral tube showing through the bidy wall as a brown patch on the headshield. The headshield extends posteriorly on each side to form a large pair of flaps partly covering shell. At the front of the headshield a permanent funnel is formed on each side, leading water down over the chemosensory Hancock's organs whih lie in the groove formed between the head shield and the foot. The posterior edge of the mantle is developed into an exhalent siphon. The foot is large and thin, extending posteriorly as far as the tip of the shell. The operculum is attached in the posterior midline.

The shell is ovate, globose, umbilicate; pinkish white with two pink spiral lines dividing whorl into 3 parts, the middle one being twice the width of the outer two. A diffuse spiral band runs around the base of the shell. Axial red lines are not well marked except for short lines running down from the suture halfway to the upper pink spiral line. There are approximately 7 axial lines on body whorl. The spire is realtively low, approximately one ninth of shell height, the protoconch is large, whorls rounded. The shell is sculptured with wide smooth spiral ridges, separated by narrow punctate grooves, approximately one third to one quarter the width of ridges. The aperture large, narrowing at the upper end and slightly at the lower end; the outer lip is thin, joining body whorl just above upper red spiral line. Suture channelled. The columella is white, straight, broad, slightly truncated at base, free edge slightly recurved to form umbilical opening. The inner lip forms a calcified layer over the lower half of the shell aperture. This species differs from Bullina lineata in the shape of the shell, animal and radular morphology.

Reference:
• Rudman, W.B. (1971) The genus Bullina (Opisthobranchia, Gastropoda) in New Zealand. J. Mal. Soc. Aust. 2(2): 195-203.
• Rudman, W.B. (1972) Studies on the primitive opisthobranch genera Bullina Ferussac and Micromelo Pilsbry. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 51(2): 105-19, 8 figs.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2003 (June 5) Bullina roseana Rudman, 1971. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/bullrose

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  1. Bullina roseana from New Zealand
    From: Bill Rudman, June 5, 2003

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