Elysia flava Verrill, 1901

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 : 301

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222933.2022.2040630
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6772038
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/024087AB-D868-D112-9A90-2518FCB0F9C7
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Elysia flava Verrill, 1901
status

Treatment

Elysia flava Verrill, 1901 View in CoL View at ENA

( Figure 6 View Figure 6 (g))

Material examined

Cala d’Aiguafreda , Begur ( Spain), 41°57 ʹ 49”N, 3°13 ʹ 41”E, 30 July 2015, 2.3 m depth, 6 spcs, adults, L = 5–12 mm; GoogleMaps Roqueo de los 14, La Herradura ( Spain), 36°43 ʹ 13.2”N, 3°43 ʹ 43.5”W, 18 September 2016, 1.6 m depth, 3 spcs, adults, L = 7–10 mm GoogleMaps .

External morphology

Body elongate, narrow, background colour green/yellow, dark green in parapodia, margin of parapodia wavy, white. Rhinophores short, apex white, with two white spots between eyes.

Ecology

Specimens found in July mating on unidentified algae. This species is strictly nocturnal, found during the day under rocks and at night on algae, especially green filamentous algae such as Cladophora .

Distribution

Caribbean Sea (GBIF.org 2021); Madeira ( Cervera et al. 2004); Azores ( Malaquias et al. 2009); Greece and Adriatic Sea (Ballesteros et al. 2012–2021); Spain: Canary Islands, Levantine coast, Catalonia ( Cervera et al. 2004; this study), Andalucía (this study).

Remarks

This species is differentiated from sympatric Elysia by the yellowish colour of the body as well as the green dark colour in the parapodia ( Thompson and Jaklin 1988).

Superorder SIPHONARIMORPHA

Family SIPHONARIIDAE Gray, 1827

Genus Williamia Monterosato, 1884