The living morphology and movement of the temperate Australian marine snail Sukashitrochus pulcher (Petterd, 1884) (Vetigastropoda: Scissurellidae)

Abstract

The external morphology and movement of a living specimen of the minute gastropod Sukashitrochus pulcher (Petterd, 1884) is reported and the findings compared with the reported morphologies of other species of Sukashitrochus and scissurellids more generally. Although some scissurellids exhibit swimming behaviour, there is no evidence that temperate Australian Sukashitrochus species possess this ability.

Keywords:

• epipodial sense organ
• epipodial tentacle
• head-foot
• microgastropod
• morphology
• operculum
• southern Australia
• suboptic tentacle
• swimming

Acknowledgements

Daniel L. Geiger of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California has offered important support, encouragement and assistance in this work from its early phases, and his landmark monograph on the little slit shells has also been an invaluable reference. Robert Burn of Geelong, Victoria has shared his personal observations of living scissurellids and provided a number of the references. Staff of Museum Victoria's Marine Invertebrate Department (including Robin Wilson, Chris Rowley and Melanie Mackenzie) kindly allowed the study of the scissurellid collection and use of the library and stereomicroscopes. Melanie Mackenzie of Museum Victoria lodged specimens F219801 and F219825 into the NMV collection. Robyn Mary Vafiadis translated selected French reference material. Finally, we thank Daniel L. Geiger and Winston Ponder for editorial advice and guidance which have greatly improved the manuscript.