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Additional Photos
side
underside
young, 1.5 mm
with egg masses
shell
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GALLERY
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Micromelo undatum (Brugiere, 1792)
Maximum size: 40 mm.
Identification:
This bubble shell has a thin, strongly inflated, flesh-colored shell
marked by three spiral brown lines that are joined by wavy axial brown
lines. The body is translucent cream shading to iridescent green-yellow
marginally and spotted with opaque white.
Natural history:
Micromelo undatum
is a moderately rare diurnal species found crawling in the open
in rocky habitats at moderately protected to highly exposed
sites, generally at depths of < 1 to 4 m (< 3 to 13 ft). Like
other
members of the family, it feeds on polychaete worms. A 16 mm animal
laid
a
convoluted,
cream egg mass about 7 mm in height by 3.8 mm in width with a 2 mm wide
ribbon. It hatched in about eight days in the laboratory.
Distribution:
Big Island, Maui, Molokai, Oahu, Necker, Laysan and Midway:
circumtropical.
Taxonomic notes:
This is the species listed as Micromelo
guamensis (Quoy and Gaimard, 1825) in Kay, 1979 and Bertsch and
Johnson, 1981. Many sources also list it as Micromelo undata. It is referred to
as the "wavy bubble shell" in Hoover,
1998 & 2006.
Photo: CP: 12
mm: Mokolea Point, Maui; July 23, 2005.
Observations and comments:
Note
1: ( )
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