Haminoea japonica, common name the Japanese bubble snail, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of sea snail

Sea snail

Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....

 or bubble snail, a marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 opisthobranch gastropod mollusc in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Haminoeidae

Haminoeidae

Haminoeidae, commonly known as the haminoeid bubble snail family, is a taxonomic family of sea snails, marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Haminoeoidea....

, one of the families of bubble snails.

Distribution

The distribution of Haminoea japonica includes:

• Japan
• Korea
• Thailand
• Mediterranean Sea
• San Francisco Bay
  San Francisco Bay
  San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
  
  , California
• Washington, USA

Description

The length of Haminoea japonica is 19 mm.

Parasites

The parasites of Haminoea japonica include an avian schistosome, which has been implicated in human cercarial dermatitis in San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

, California.

Further reading

• Gosliner T. M. & Behrens D. W. (2006). "Anatomy of an invasion: systematics and distribution of the introduced opisthobranch snail, Haminoea japonica Pilsbry, 1895 (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia: Haminoeidae)". Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 57: 1003–1010.