Doto cervicenigra Ortea and Bouchet, 1989

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 : 279-280

Doto cervicenigra Ortea and Bouchet, 1989

( Figure 3 (f))

Material examined

Cala Maset caves, Sant Feliu de Guíxols ( Spain), 41°47 ʹ 10.5”N, 3°2 ʹ 44.6”E, 13 April 2016, 0.3 m depth, 1 spc., L = 5 mm; 31 December 2017, 1.2 m depth, 3 spcs, juveniles and adults, L = 15 mm; 13 January 2018, 0.4 m depth, 2 spcs, L = 3–7 mm; 31 December 2017, 1.2 m depth, 3 spcs, juveniles and adults, L = 15 mm; Le Ponton , Étang de Thau , Sète ( France), 43°25 ʹ 28.5”N, 3°42 ʹ E, 13 April 2018, 0.2 m depth, 4 spcs, adults, L = 7–10 mm; 21 May 2018, 0.2 m depth, 12 spcs, adults and egg masses, L = 7–10 mm; la Farge, Étang de Thau , Sète ( France), 43°25 ʹ 48”N, 3°42 ʹ 14”E, 21 May 2018, 0.2 m depth, 17 spcs, adults and egg masses, L = 7–10 mm; Port de Sant Feliu ( Spain), 41°46 ʹ 42.2”N, 3°02 ʹ 16.4”E, 29 January 2020, 0.2 m depth, 11 spcs, adults, juveniles and egg masses, L = 2–12 mm; Arenys de Mar port ( Spain), 41°34 ʹ 38.8”N, 2°33 ʹ 23.5”E, 15 February 2020, 0.2 m depth, 2 spcs, adults, L = 10 mm; Port de Blanes ( Spain), 41°40 ʹ 25.5”N, 2°47 ʹ 48.6”E, 2 March 2020, 0.2 m depth, 2 spcs, adults, L = 6–10 mm; Mar Menor, Cartagena ( Spain), 37°38 ʹ 6”N, 0°44 ʹ 10.3”W, 27 September 2020, 0.3 m depth, 7 spcs, juveniles, adults and egg masses, L = 2–6 mm .

External morphology

Body elongate, narrow, background colour white with black marks all along but most concentrated in the head area. Rhinophores black with white tips. Cerata with tubercles, apical part black.

Ecology

Specimens were found at shallow depths where there was an influx of fresh water, on rocks and hydrozoans, possibly Obelia spp. , feeding and laying large, short, linear, white egg masses (very different from the characteristic egg masses of the genus Doto , with an ‘S’ shape) at the bottom of the colony. Found to be more active at night.

Distribution

Corsica ( Ortea and Bouchet 1989); Italy ( Chiarore et al. 2019); Spain: Spanish Levantine coast (this study), Mallorca (GROC 2009–2021), Catalonia (this study); France (this study).

Remarks

This species is easily distinguished from Doto conspecifics by the presence of black rhinophores and small tubercles with a black dot in the cerata ( Ortea and Bouchet 1989).

Figures

Figure 3. Photographs of live Nudibranchia species: (a) Palio nothus and its egg mass. (b) The alien Polycera hedgpethi. (c) Polycerella emertoni and egg mass on Amathia verticillata. (d) Thecacera pennigera on top of the bryozoan Bugula sp. (e) Two specimens of Anteaeolidiella lurana and their egg masses. (f) Doto cervicenigra. (g) Doto fragilis (photo credit: Oriol Planas). (h) Doto pygmaea.