Author: (Garrett, 1857)

Order: Acteonoidea  Family: Aplustridae

Maximum Size: 20 mm

Sightings: Sunshine Coast

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Micromelo scriptus (Garrett, 1857)

External features assisting to differentiate from its congeners:
– Yellow-orange marginal band followed by submarginal diffuse aqua band
– Small, oval or compound white patches, widely spaced
– Smooth posterior margins to headshield lobes

This site originally listed a single Micromelo species – Micromelo undatus (Bruguiere, 1972). Molecular sequencing and morphological work, (Feliciano et al, 2021), has revealed a number of cryptic Micromelo species and demonstrating that Micromelo undatus is restricted to an Atlantic distribution. Our sightings of Micromelo on the Sunshine Coast include three of those cryptic species:
Micromelo barbarae
Micromelo scriptus
Micromelo guamensis

(Updated May 2022)

This site originally listed a single Micromelo species – Micromelo undatus (Bruguiere, 1972). Molecular sequencing and morphological work (Feliciano et al, 2021) has revealed a number of cryptic Micromelo species. Our sightings of Micromelo on the Sunshine Coast include three of those cryptic species:
Micromelo barbarae
Micromelo scriptus
Micromelo guamensis

References:
– Feliciano, K., Malaquias, M. A. E., Stout, C., Brenzinger, B., Gosliner, T. M. & Valdes, A. (2021). Molecular and morphological analyses reveal pseudocryptic diversity in Micromelo undatus (Bruguiere, 1792) (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Aplustridae). Systematics and Biodiversity, 19(7): 834–858