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Heath's Chiton
Stenoplax heathiana
Stenoplax heathiana, commonly known as Heath's chiton, is a species of chiton found under rocks in the sandy middle and low intertidal, from Mendocino County, CA to Puerto Santo Tomás, Baja California.
From the article Stenoplax heathiana on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Like other Stenoplax, Heath's chiton is a relatively narrow-bodied chiton, about two or three times as long as it is wide. It can grow up to 7.6 cm in length. It has a pale foot and a pale, cream-colored girdle. The species is most readily identified by its wide 8th plate.
What it does
Like other mollusks, S. heathiana eggs hatch into planktonic larvae called trochophores. These will metamorphose directly into young adults without a veliger stage. The chitons are mostly nocturnal. Their diet mainly consists of algae that accumulates in the rocks of their environment.
Wikipedia: “Life cycle”
In human culture
Heath's chiton was named for Harold Heath, an invertebrate biologist and professor of zoology at Stanford.
== References ==
Wikipedia: “Etymology”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Stenoplax heathiana in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 71238.