Family RUNCINIDAE H. Adams & A. Adams, 1854

Family Runcinidae. Runcina australis.(from Beesley, Ross & Wells 1998) [R. Plant]

Museums

Regional Maps

• Runcinidae Adams, H. & Adams, A. 1854. The genera of Recent Mollusca arranged according to their organization. London : John Van Voorst Vol. 2(Parts XVI-XVIII) pp. 1-92, pls 56-72. [42].

  Type genus:

   Runcina Forbes, 1851.

Introduction

A family of common, but because of their small size, rarely seen opisthobranchs related to bubble shells. The body is usually elongate oval, with no transverse division into head shield and visceral mass as in philinids, aglajids and gastropterids. The foot is as long or longer than the body. Gills are present between the foot and the mantle, either at the rear right of the body or in the posterior mid-line. There is usually no shell, but some have a minute internal shelly plate posteriorly, and at least two species have a minute external coiled shell projecting from a notch in the posterior mantle edge. Runcinids have a radula and four transversely ribbed gastral plates. 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. [958]

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