Family GLAUCIDAE Gray, 1827

Family Glaucidae. Glaucus atlanticus.(from Beesley, Ross & Wells 1998) [S. Weidland]

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Introduction

A family of one genus and two species. Glaucid aeolids are adapted to a pelagic life on the open ocean. Here they spend their lives floating upside down at the surface of the sea, helped by an ingested bubble of air. Animals of both species are bicoloured, dark and darkest blue on the ventral side which faces the light, silvery white on the dorsal surface which faces the abyssal depths. The cerata arise from stout arms or peduncles that project from the body. The cerata are used to “row” animals about as they seek their prey, the floating cnidarians Physalia, Velella and Porpita.

[Compiled from Burn (in press 2012)]

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.

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

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