Sea slug night fever: 39 new records of elusive heterobranchs in the western Mediterranean (Mollusca: Gastropoda)
Author
Salvador, Xavier
0000-0003-3039-7566
Author
Fernández-Vilert, Robert
0000-0002-2812-4414
Author
Moles, Juan
0000-0003-4511-4055
text
Journal of Natural History
2022
2022-05-18
56
5 - 8
265
310
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2022.2040630
journal article
10.1080/00222933.2022.2040630
38f6df24-838f-409a-90df-b56087e6a9bc
1464-5262
6758438
Limapontia capitata
(O.F. Müller, 1774)
(
Figure 6
(d))
Material examined
Le Ponton
,
Étang de Thau
, Sète (
France
),
43°25
ʹ
28.5”N
,
3°42
ʹ
E
,
18 May 2017
,
1 m
depth
, 2 spcs, adults,
L =
3 mm
.
External morphology
Body short, thick, background colour dark brown, periocular area and tail white. Rhinophores very short, crest-like. Parapodia absent. Protuberance caused by pericardial system seen in dorsum.
Ecology
Specimens found in brackish waters on substrate extensively covered by the green alga
Ulva lactuca
Linnaeus, 1753
.
Distribution
Originally described in the North Sea (
England
and
Norway
;
Muller 1773
); also,
Portugal
(
Cervera et al. 2004
);
Spain
: Cantabric Sea,
Galicia
, Levantine coast (
Templado et al. 1983
;
Cervera et al. 2004
); Mediterranean French coast (this study).
Remarks
This species has been reported from eutrophic areas with variable salinity, although its presence has been attributed to having been washed there by waves (
Rudman 2021
). It has always been found with green algae of the genera
Cladophora
,
Ulva
and
Bryopsis
. It can be distinguished from
L. senestra
(
Quatrefages, 1844
)
because it lacks long cephalic extensions, and from
L. depressa
Alder and Hancock, 1862
because of its particular head shape (
Gascoigne 1952
).
Genus
Placida
Trinchese, 1876