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Family  Choriplacidae

Choriplacid chitons

The family Choriplacidae is known from only one species, Choriplax grayi (H. Adams & Angas, 1864), which is endemic to southern Australia.

Family References

• Iredale, T. & Basset Hull, A.F. 1927 Choriplax grayi. Pp. 89-90 in A Monograph of the Australian Loricates. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Sydney. 168 pp. (This is a consolidated and repaginated version of the same material that was published in sections in The Australian Zoologist over the years 1923-1927).

• Kaas, P. & Van Belle, R., 1985. Choriplax grayi (H. Adams & Angas, 1864). Pp. 204-206 in Monograph of Living Chitons Volume 1 E.J. Brill/Dr. W. Backhuys Leiden.

• Gowlett-Holmes, K. 1998. Family Choriplacidae. P. 180 in Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A. (eds) Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia. Vol. 5. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne. Part B. viii 565-1234 pp.

• Gowlett-Holmes, K. 2001. Choriplacidae. P. 44 in Wells, A. & Houston, W.W.K. (eds) Zoological catalogue of Australia. Vol. 17.2 Mollusca: Aplacophora, Polyplacophora, Scaphopoda, Cephalopoda. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, Australia.

• Gowlett-Holmes, K. 1987. The suborder Choriplacina Starobogatov & Sirenko, 1975 with a re-description of Choriplax grayi (H. Adams & Angas, 1864) (Mollusca: Polyplacophora). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 111(2): 105-110.

Coverage

The only species of the family known from NSW is Choriplax grayi:

Choriplax grayi (H. Adams & Angas, 1864).

This is a small (up to 30 mm), rare species with reduced valves in a large fleshy girdle. It lives on a red alga to a depth of 20 m or occasionally on sponges on brown algae or on stones, in southern Australia from NSW to Perth, WA, including Tas. The only NSW specimen known is the holotype, dredged from Watsons Bay, Port Jackson before 1867. As no  further specimen has been collected in NSW in the intervening 150 years, its continuing presence in NSW is regarded as doubtful.

The species is illustrated in The Southern Synthesis p. 180, Fig. 3.33.