Hallaxa michaeli
Gosliner & Johnson, 1994

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Actinocyclidae

DISTRIBUTION

Known only from south-eastern Australia [New South Wales, Victoria].

PHOTO

Barons Hut, Royal National Park, Sydney, March 1987, 20 m – on blue & white cunjevoi (Pyura sp), nudibranch 23 mm long. AM C152940. Photo: Bill Rudman

Elongate  dorid, translucent white all over, with small opaque white specks scattered irregularly over the foot and mantle, and sometimes on the gills and rhinophores. The rhinophoree club has an opaque white tip. The bipinnate gills are typical for the genus, standing upright and forming a goblet shaped circlet around the anus in the posterior dorsal midline. Known from very few records. Both specimens from New South Wales have a pickish tinge showing through from the digestive gland. The colour is most probably associated with its food [see message #15628 ], the pink sponge Halisarca laxus (Lendenfeld).

See message #17208   for description of the radula.

• Gosliner, T. M. & S. Johnson (1994) Review of the genus Hallaxa (Nudibranchia: Actinocyclidae) with descriptions of nine new species. The Veliger, 37(2): 155-191.
  

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