Cratena minor Padula, Araújo, 2014

Delgado, Marlon, Freire, Fúlvio Aurélio de Morais, Meirelles, Carlos Augusto Oliveira de, Padula, Vinicius, Bahia, Juliana & Brandão, Simone Nunes, 2022, Sea slugs (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) from Rio Grande do Norte, Northeastern Brazil, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 62, pp. 1-26 : 18

36. Cratena minor Padula, Araújo , Matthews-Cascon & Schrödl, 2014 ( Fig. 4F )

Material examined: Praia de Baia Formosa, Baia Formosa, 04.I.2011, two specimens, 17-18 mm (body length), leg. M. Delgado ( GEEFAA 334).

Description: Elongated and cylindrical body. The color is milky translucent, with a pair of opaque and orange trapezoid spots on the side of the head, below the rhinophores and above the oral tentacles. The color of the rhinophores is filled with ⅔ orange from the base and ⅓ whitish from the apex to the tip, with a small white band in the whitish region formed by small spots, also present in the medial portion of the oral tentacles, making them lighter. A bright red fills the color of the cerata completely, with the exception of the apex which presents the whitish colored cnidosacs. In the posterior portion, the head is well developed with lateral black eyes below the rhinophores, smooth and well elongated oral tentacles with a thick base and tapering at the tip, set at an oblique horizontal angle. Elongated, smooth and tapered rhinophores. In the medial portion, there are ceratae arranged in six rows, the most dorsal being larger and the smaller ones arranged laterally. Foot smooth, narrow and elongated. It is bilobed, forming two thin and trapezoid projections in the anterior portion, similar to oral tentacles. The foot narrows in the posterior portion, forming a long tail.

Geographic distribution: Western Atlantic: USA (Florida) (? Cratena cf. peregrina ) and Brazil (Ceará, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte – present study) ( Valdés et al., 2006; Padula et al., 2014).

Figures

Figure 4. Heterobranch sea slugs from Rio Grande do Norte. (A) Doris kyolis (6 mm – GEEFAA 340); (B) Doris sp. (8 mm – GEEFAA 347); (C) Doto chica (5 mm – GEEFAA 315); (D) Doto divae (2 mm – GEEFAA 285); (E) Phidiana lynceus (27 mm – MZSP 97035);(F) Cratena minor (18 mm – GEEFAA 334); (G) Berghia creutzbergi (13 mm – GEEFAA 1306); (H) Berghia rissodominguezi (3 mm – GEEFAA 289); (I) Spurilla braziliana (13 mm – MZSP 97034); (J) Glaucus atlanticus (35 mm – phot. reg.);(K) Cuthonabarbadiana (5 mm – GEEFAA 257).