Hermaea bifida (Montagu, 1816)

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 : 295-297

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2022.2040630
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6772015
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/024087AB-D852-D116-9AAC-2255FD46FC74
treatment provided by	Plazi (2022-06-27 06:31:00, last updated 2024-11-26 02:50:22)
scientific name	Hermaea bifida (Montagu, 1816)
status

Treatment

Hermaea bifida (Montagu, 1816) View in CoL View at ENA

( Figure 6 View Figure 6 (a))

Material examined

Cala d’Aiguafreda, Begur ( Spain), 41°57 ʹ 49”N, 3°13 ʹ 41”E, 31 March 2017, 1 m depth, 9 spcs, adults, L = 7–12 mm; 25 December 2017, 1 m depth, 5 spcs, adults and juveniles; GoogleMaps Cala Maset caves, Sant Feliu de Guíxols ( Spain), 41°47 ʹ 10”N, 3°2 ʹ 44”E, 31 December 2017, 0.7 m depth, 2 spcs, juvenile and adult, L = 2–6 mm; 8 March 2018, 1.4 m depth, 2 spcs, adults and egg masses, L = 12 mm; GoogleMaps Cala Sa Tuna, 41°57 ʹ 38”N, 3°13 ʹ 52”E, 3 January 2018, 0.8 m depth, 4 spcs, adults, L = 5–7 mm; GoogleMaps Punta del Romaní, L’Escala ( Spain), 42°6 ʹ 54”N, 3° 10 ʹ 9”E, 6 January 2018, 0.7 m depth, 1 spc., juvenile, L = 2 mm; GoogleMaps Cala Trons, Lloret de Mar ( Spain), 41°41 ʹ 57”N, 2°51 ʹ 52”E, 20 January 2018, 1.7 m depth, 1 spc., adult, L = 12 mm. GoogleMaps

External morphology

Body elongate, narrow, background colour red and semi-transparent, with dispersed white dots concentrated around head, cerata and rhinophore apexes. Cerata globular, leaf-shaped, semi-transparent, with internal lines of red colour running towards apex and surrounded by four tubercles. Rhinophores beige, internally rolled, bifid with superior apex slightly longer than inferior one.

Ecology

Specimens were found on the red alga Bornetia secundiflora (J.Agardh) Thuret, 1855 , where they were mating and laying the eggs. The egg mass is whitish, cylindrical and ‘C’-shaped ( Figure 5 View Figure 5 (b), close-up); they were laid under the algae, around B. secundiflora but not on it.

Distribution

Central American coast and England (iNaturalist.org 2021); Portugal ( Cervera et al. 2004); Gibraltar ( García-Gómez 2002); Spain: Galicia ( Rolán 1983), Andalucía ( Cervera et al. 1988), Levantine coast ( Templado 1982; Templado et al. 1983, 1984; Marín and Ros 1988), Balearic Islands, Spain (GROC 2009–2021), Catalonia ( Ballesteros et al. 2016; this study); France ( Rudman 2021).

Remarks

In the Spanish Balearic Islands this species was reported on the invasive alga Lophocladia lallemandii (Montagne) F. Schmitz, 1893 ( GROC 2009–2021 ), off Catalonia we commonly found it on B. secundiflora ; juvenile specimens had a fluorescent orange colouration on their cerata, similar in colour to the latter alga.

References

Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2016. Actualizacion del catalogo de los moluscos opistobranquios (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) de las costas catalanas. Spira. 6: 1 - 28.

Cervera JL, Garcia-Gomez JC, Ortea J. 1988. Una nueva especie del genero Hermaea (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia: Sacoglossa) y redescripcion de dos raros sacoglosos de la malacofauna europea. Iberus. 8: 215 - 224.

Cervera JL, Calado G, Gavaia C, Malaquias MAE, Templado J, Ballesteros M, Megina C, Garcia-Gomez JC. 2004. An annotated and updated checklist of the opisthobranchs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Spain and Portugal (including Islands and archipelagos). Boletin-Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia. 20: 5 - 111.

Garcia-Gomez JC. 2002. Paradigmas de una fauna insolita. Los moluscos opistobranquios del estrecho de Gibraltar (Serie Ciencias). Inst Estudios Gibraltarenos. 20: 397.

Marin A, Ros JD. 1988. Los sacoglosos (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia) del sudeste iberico. Catalogo de las especies y presencia de cloroplastos algales en las mismas. Iberus. 8: 25 - 49.

Rolan E. 1983. Moluscos de la Ria de Vigo. I. Gasteropodos. Santiago de Compostela (La Coruna, Spain): Universidad de Santiago, Colegio Universitario de Vigo. 383.

Rudman W 2021. Sea Slug Forum. Sydney: Australian Museum. Accessed 2021 May 22. http: // www. seaslugforum. net / factsheet / tyloperv

Templado J. 1982. Datos sobre los opistobranquios del Cabo de Palos (Murcia). Bolletino Malacologico. 18: 247 - 254.

Templado J, Talavera P, Murillo L. 1983. Adiciones a la fauna de opistobranquios del Cabo de Palos (Murcia) I. Iberus. 3: 47 - 50.

Templado J. 1984. Moluscos de la praderas de Posidonia oceanica en las costas del cabo de Paolos (Murcia). Investigacion Pesquera. 48: 509 - 526.

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.

Figure 6. Photographs of live Sacoglossa species: (a) Hermaea bifida and close-up on its egg mass at the base of an alga. (b) Hermaea cantabra. (c) Hermaea paucicirra. (d) Limapontia capitata on Ulva lactuca. (e) Placida tardyi. (f) Placida viridis. (g) Elysia flava. Siphonariidae: (h) Williamia gussoni.