Family AKERIDAE Mazzarelli, 1891

Family Akeridae. Akera soluta (after photography W. B. Rudman) [R. Plant]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Akeridae Mazzarelli, 1891.

  Type genus:

   Akera O. F. Müller, 1776.

Introduction

Shell external, fragile, flexible, stoutly cylindrical with a narrow sutural slit. Animal larger than shell, head not developed into oral tentacles and rhinophores, slender whip-like flagellum may project from sutural slit and trail behind the animal as it crawls along, parapodia large, folding over anterior part of shell to prevent sediment entering the mantle cavity while burrowing, used for swimming to escape predators. Compiled from Burn (in press).

General References

Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A. (eds) 1998. Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 5(Part B) pp. vi–viii, 565–1234. [975]

Burn, R. 2006. A checklist and bibliography of the Opisthobranchia (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of Victoria and the Bass Strait area, south-eastern Australia. Museum Victoria Science Report 10: 1-42

History of changes