William B. "Bill" Rudman (born 1944) [1] [2] is a malacologist from New Zealand and Australia. [2] In particular he studies sea slugs, opisthobranch gastropod molluscs, and has named many species of nudibranchs.
Rudman has a PhD from the University of Auckland, gained with a thesis on bullomorph opisthobranchs. [3] Rudman ran the Sea Slug Forum, a website affiliated with the Australian Museum. In Rudman's words, the forum "aims to generate more interest in these fascinating animals by sharing information with a worldwide audience." [4] Sea Slug Forum has information and numerous images of nudibranchs, bubble-snails, sea hares and other kinds of sea slugs. It was discontinued in 2010 after 14,523 messages had been posted. [5] It is still online as a resource, but not accepting new messages.
Species named in honour of this malacologist include:
The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) lists 186 marine species named by Rudman. [6]
Rudman's bibliography includes: [7]