Haminoea maugeansis
Burn, 1966
Order: CEPHALASPIDEA
Superfamily: HAMINOEOIDEA
Family: Haminoeidae
DISTRIBUTION
Known only from southeastern Australia with confirmed records from Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia.
PHOTO
Locality: Ricketts Point, Beaumaris, 0.5 metres, Victoria, Australia, Port Phillip, 08 December 2006, On sea grass - Heterozostera nigricaulis. Length: 15 mm. Photographer: John Eichler.
This is a typical species of Haminoea with a thin transparent bubble-shaped shell, often with a brownish tinge. Like many species, the colour of the animal is rather nonedescript, with a translucent clear background colour, sometimes with a brownish tinge, and a mottled pattern of black and grey patches, white granules, and diffuse orange patches.
It is a relatively small species rarely growing larger than 10 mm in total length. It is relativley common in the intertidal and shallow sublittoral in Zostera beds in sheltered bays, and also in shallow pools on on rock platforms. Like all haminoeids. it is a herbivore feeding on some green algae and probably the diatomaceous film on soft shores and other surfaces.
- Burn, R. 1966. Notes on some opisthobranchs mainly from South Australia. Records of the South Australian Museum, 15(2): 329-352.
Rudman, W.B., 2007 (June 13) Haminoea maugeansis Burn, 1966. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/hamimaug
Related messages
Haminoea maugeansis from Victoria
June 14, 2007
From: John Eichler
Dear Bill
I haven't been able to find any information about or images of the southern Australian bubble shell, Haminoea maugeansis on the Forum and I'm sending this image in the hope that it might prompt the preparation of a Fact Sheet. The animal was relatively large - about three times the size of those I've found in the past.
Locality: Ricketts Point, Beaumaris, 0.5 metres, Victoria, Australia, Port Phillip, 08 December 2006, On sea grass - Heterozostera nigricaulis. Length: 15 mm. Photographer: John Eichler.
Regards
John Eichler
john.eichler@frankston.vic.gov.au
Thanks John,
This is another gap that needed to be filled. I've include a close-up of the head to show the two little black eyes, and the ear-like flaps on the posterior border of the head shield. In both that photo and the close-up of the colour pattern on the mantle through the transparent shell, you can see mottled black white and diffuse orange patches which are characteristic of this species.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
