Bullina vitrea
Pease, 1860
Order: CEPHALASPIDEA
Superfamily: ACTEONOIDEA
Family: Bullinidae
PHOTO
Channel between Récif de l'Infernet & Barrier Reef, 20°36.2'S, 164°11.0'E, 12-15m, in Lagoon, off Koumac, New Caledonia, grey sand substrate, 11 October 1993, 2 specimens, AM C200444. Approx 25mm long crawling.
Originally described from Hawaii, specimens from northern New South Wales, Australia, and New Caledonia are in the collections of the Australian Museum. Sub-fossil specimens, most probably of this species, from Sydney Harbour, were described by Iredale (1929) as Perbullina errans. The shell is characterised by two grey or black spiral bands on the shell, the upper band usually consisting of two lines, the lower band being a single band. The animal is translucent clear with some white pigmentation.
Reference:
• Pease, W.H., (1860). Descriptions of new species of mollusca from the Sandwich Islands. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 28: 18-37.
Rudman, W.B., 2000 (December 19) Bullina vitrea Pease, 1860 . [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/bullvitr
Related messages
Bullina vitrea found in Japan
December 21, 2000
From: Kotaro Tanaka
Dear Dr. Rudman,
My name is Kotaro Tanaka. I live in Hachijo Island in Japan and work as a guide and a underwater photographer at Regulus Diving(dive op here).
My frequent guests love to see sea slugs, so I or other Regulus Diving staffs often take them to our special sea slug course where we only look for seas slugs.
One day, I checked those sites by myself and I found an unknown species (Please see attached images). I could not identify this animal. In the meanwhile, I hear that Nishina Masayoshi has been in correspondence with you and you have identified it as Bullina vitrea Pease. I was really wondering what that animal is. So I am very happy to know it! (Nishina has kindly translated this message for me).
Attached photographs include one of its egg mass. Here is some other information about my photographs:
Date: 31 July,2000
Place: Taredo, Hachijojima Island, Japan
Depth:-1.5m on sandy place surroundings in the rock.
Shell size: about 2cm
Egg mass size: 1.5cm in height.
I will be very happy if these photographs helps your research and the Forum.
Best wishes,
Kotaro Tanaka
kotaebi@photo.club.ne.jp
Dear Kotara,
This is indeed an interesting find and with my records from Australia and New Caledonia it seems that this species has a wide distribution at east in the Western Pacific.
If you would like to share some of your interesting finds and photos, I am always happy to publish them on the Forum. The Japanese fauna is very interesting to people in other parts of the world because of the very important work that has been done by Japanese scientists.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.
Re: Bullina vitrea from Japan
December 21, 2000
From: Nishina Masayoshi
Here is some more to add to Kotaro Tanaka's message about Bullina vitrea in Japan. I just back from Hachijo and they told me that they found other 3 Bullina vitrea Pease at same place, one of them looks further more different. Now they understood how important it is. So they reported and sent one of the live Bullina to some kind of authority named Dr.Hori. They said he also was surprised that it lives in Japan.
Best wishes,
Nishina Masayoshi
nishina@hpe15.wips.co.jp
Masayoshi, N. , 2000 (Dec 21) Re: Bullina vitrea from Japan. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3408