Piseinotecus soussi Tamsouri, Carmona, Moukrim and Cervera, 2014

Salvador, Xavier, Fernández-Vilert, Robert & Moles, Juan, 2022, Sea slug night fever: 39 new records of elusive heterobranchs in the western Mediterranean (Mollusca: Gastropoda), Journal of Natural History 56 (5 - 8), pp. 265-310 : 286

Piseinotecus soussi Tamsouri, Carmona, Moukrim and Cervera, 2014

( Figure 4 (e))

Material examined

Cala Maset caves, Sant Feliu de Guíxols ( Spain), 41°47 ʹ 10”N, 3°2 ʹ 44”E, 22 January 2018, 1.8 m depth, 7 spcs, juveniles, adults and egg masses, L = 4–25 mm; 29 January 2018, 1.6 m depth, 9 spcs, adults and egg masses, L = 12–25 mm .

External morphology

Body elongate, narrow, background colour violet or pink. Rhinophores and oral tentacles smooth, white apically with degraded white punctuation. Cerata smooth, long, translucent, with digestive gland visible in orange; white apically, presenting profuse white punctuation.

Ecology

Specimens found mating and laying the egg masses on unidentified species of hydrozoans at night, and inactive at the base of the colonies during the day.

Distribution

Morocco ( Tamsouri et al. 2014); Italy (Ballesteros et al. 2012–2021), Catalonia ( Ballesteros et al. 2016; this study).

Remarks

Originally described from Morocco, it is quite widespread on the Catalan coast. Differs from similar-looking species, such as Edmundsella pedata (Montagu, 1816) , by the presence of abundant white spots in the cerata, rhinophores and oral tentacles.

Figures

Figure 4. Photographs of live Nudibranchia species: (a) The pelagic Phylliroe cf. bucephala. (b) Amphorina andra surrounded by hydrozoans of the genus Sertularella. (c) Eubranchus prietoi on the hydrozoan Kirchenpaueria halecioides. (d) The alien Godiva quadricolor. (e) Three specimens of Piseinotecus soussi and their egg masses. (f) Piseinotecus sphaeriferus on top of the hydrozoan Obelia sp. (g) Tenellia adspersa. (h) Trinchesia cuanensis on top of the hydrozoan Sertularella sp.