Aplysiopsis elegans Deshayes, 1853

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 : 293-294

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2022.2040630
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6772005
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/024087AB-D850-D12B-9ADE-2477FEA0FE87
treatment provided by	Plazi (2022-06-27 06:31:00, last updated 2024-11-26 02:50:22)
scientific name	Aplysiopsis elegans Deshayes, 1853
status

Treatment

Aplysiopsis elegans Deshayes, 1853 View in CoL

( Figure 5 View Figure 5 (f))

Material examined

Cova de l’infern ( Spain), 42°19 ʹ 2.75”N, 3°19 ʹ 12.74”E, 19 November 2017, 1.2 m depth, 5 spcs, adults and egg masses, L = 15–20 mm; GoogleMaps Cala Maset caves, Sant Feliu de Guíxols ( Spain), 41°47 ʹ 10”N, 3°2 ʹ 44”E, 13 September 2019, 1.3 m depth, 1 spc., adult, L = 15 mm; GoogleMaps Punta de la Mona, Andalucía ( Spain), 36°43 ʹ 12.9”N 3°43 ʹ 43.1”W, 19 September 2020, 3 m depth, 1 spc., adult and egg masses, L = 20 mm. GoogleMaps

External morphology

Body elongate, narrow, background colour white with longitudinal dark red lines on dorsum and lateral body parts. Cerata long, smooth; background colour green with white punctuation, dark red vertical lines, pink on tips.

Ecology

Specimens were found feeding on the green alga Cladophora prolifera (Roth) Kützing, 1843 . The egg mass is whitish, cylindrical, found associated with algae. The specimen observed in 2019 was found at night crawling over algae, while the 2017 specimens were hidden inside algae. This could mean that slugs are mostly nocturnal, hiding among algae during the day.

Distribution

Greece ( OBIS 2021); Croatia ( Mavrič et al. 2014); Spain: Canary Islands ( Ortea et al. 1998, 2001), Balearic Islands ( Ballesteros and Templado 1996), Catalonia (this study).

Remarks

This species is rarely observed. It is found among algae, especially Cystoseira , Cladophora and Halopteris scoparia (Linnaeus) Sauvageau, 1904 ( Mavrič et al. 2014), and probably feeds on them.

References

Ballesteros M, Templado J. 1996. Opistobranquios de las Islas Baleares y de las Columbretes, and Moreno D, editor. Libro de Resumenes XI Congreso Nacional de Malacologia. Sociedad Espanola (Almeria, Spain: Sociedad Espanola de Malacologia). p. 40 - 41.

Mavric B, Trkov D, Lipej L. 2014. First record of the Aplysiopsis elegans (Deshayes, 1853) (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia: Saccoglossa) in the Adriatic Sea. Acta Adriatica. 55: 245 - 248.

OBIS. 2021. Ocean Biogeographic Information System. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. Accessed 2021 May 22. www. iobis. org

Ortea J, Moro L, Bacallado J, Espinosa J. 1998. Catalogo abreviado de las especies del orden Sacoglossa (= Ascoglossa, Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) de las islas Canarias y de Cabo Verde. Rev Academia Can Cienc. 10: 85 - 96.

Ortea J, Moro L, Bacallado JJ, Herrero R. 2001. Catalogo actualizado de los Moluscos Opistobranquios de las Islas Canarias. Rev Academia Can Cienc. 12: 105 - 136.

Figures

Figure 5. Photographs of live Pteropoda species: (a) Creseis virgula. (b) Hyalocylis striata. (c) Peracle reticulata. (d) Pneumodermopsis canephora. Runcinida: (e) Runcina ornata. Sacoglossa: (f) Aplysiopsis elegans. (g) Caliphylla mediterránea. (h) Cyerce graeca.