Family BULLIDAE Gray, 1827

Family Bullidae. Bulla quoyii.(from Beesley, Ross & Wells 1998) [R. Plant]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Bullidae Gray, J.E. 1827. Mollusca, pl. 3. In, E. Smedley (ed). Encyclopaedia Metropolitana; or, Universal dictionary of knowledge. London.

  Type genus:

   Bulla Linnaeus, 1758.

Introduction

This family includes the largest of the bubble shells. The shell is broadly to narrowly ovoid in shape, the spire is depressed leaving only an apical umbilicus, the aperture is large, the shell smooth and often glossy. The animal can be contained within the shell, the pharynx has a radula, and the gizzard both gastral and accessory plates. Bullids are herbivores, and are found mostly in soft sediments near sea grass beds, from whence they emerge at night to forage. 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. [957]

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