SUMMARY
Bubbleshell snails, or Bullomorphs, are one of the largest groups of the Opisthobranchmolluscs. They are the most primitive opisthobranch order and are characterizedby a flattened head shield, from which the name Cephalaspidea is derived (Wells & Bryce 1993).
Within the opisthobranch order,
Hydatina physis (Linneaus, 1758) exists in the Family Hydatinidae (=Amplustridae). This species of Hydatinidae have a thin, calcified and brightly coloured shell with a swollen body whorl.
Opistobranchs can be found in almost every available habitat in the marine environment (Coleman 2001), however
H. physis are most commonly distributed along South Africa, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, Maldives, the Philippines, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand (Debelius 1998).
An experiment was conducted using one
H. physis collected from the reef crest of Heron Island to observe the rate at which the species travels, by crawling, with and without a disturbance, touch, to simulate predation. Results revealed a strong significant difference between the two variables using an unpaired t-test (p=0.0010).
There is very little to no fossil record of
H. physis and their fellow Hydatinidae due to their soft bodies, soft shells and short life spans. However, research on aspects of their behavior, biology and human application has been and continue to be performed to better understand this remarkable and beautiful species.