Spurilla braziliana MacFarland, 1909

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 : 19

39. Spurilla braziliana MacFarland, 1909 ( Fig. 4I )

Material examined: Praia de Santa Rita, Extremoz, 26.IV.2009, two specimens, 15-22 mm (body length), leg. M. Delgado ( MZSP 97051 ), 05.I.2011, three specimens, 14-30 mm (body length), leg. M. Delgado ( GEEFAA 293 ), 01.II.2014, one specimen, 18 mm (body length), leg. M. Delgado ( GEEFAA 258 a). Praia de Areia Preta, Natal, 04.VII.2009, two specimens, 8-13 mm (body length), leg. M. Delgado ( MZSP 97034 ; GEEFAA 267 ). Praia de Rio do Fogo, Rio do Fogo , 28.I.2010, one specimen, 10 mm (body length), leg. M. Delgado ( GEEFAA 268 ), Praia de Pitangui, Extremoz, 06.I.2019, one specimen, 16 mm (body lentgh), leg. M. Delgado ( GEEFAA 1312 ) ; 13.I.2019, one specimen, 13 mm (body length), leg. M. Delgado ( GEEFAA 1310 ) .

Description: Elongated and cylindrical body, up to 85 mm (body length) in length. Color varies between morphotypes. Morphotype one is predominantly translucent orange with white oval patches that run from the head to the tail, oral tentacles and orange rhinophores with whitish tips. Cerata are light brown in color, dotted with whitish oval spots, and the cnidosacs have a milky white color. Morphotype two has a predominantly translucent yellow color with a dorsal line, filled with circular bundles of oval white spots. The most evident bundle is on the pericardium, another with a trapezoid shape posterior to the rhinophores and the last one that fills the entire head of the animal. The rhinophores have a translucent base with the medial and apical region in orange tone with a white spot on the anterior side of the lamellae, translucent oral tentacles with slightly orange ends, light brown cerata, dotted with numerous oval spots in milky white tone.The cnidosac is white in color and has a white foot with a translucent tail. In the anterior portion, there is lateral eyes and below the rhinophores, elongated and smooth tentacles, set at an oblique horizontal angle, elongated, retractable and horizontal lamellated rhinophores, lamellae in a slightly conical shape. In the medial portion, the back is covered by smooth curved cerata, forming a hook, arranged in seven lateral pairs that cover the bare back, presence of a very prominent pericardium with a rounded shape, located between the first and second pair of cerata. The muscular foot is broad in the anterior portion, which is bilobed into two tentacles in the form of a horizontal trapezius. The foot becomes thinner as in the posterior end, forming a very sharp and cylindrical tail.

Geographic distribution: Eastern Pacific: Costa Rica, Hawaii, Mexico, Panama, Peru ( Bertsch, 1979; Gosliner, 1979; Uribe & Pacheco, 2012); Western Pacific: Australia, China, Japan (Lin, 1992; Hamatani, 2000; Carmona et al., 2013); Western Atlantic: Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Bonaire, Colombia, Cuba, CuraÇao, Guadeloupe, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, St.Vicent & the Grenadines, USA, Venezuela, Virgin Islands, Brazil (Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte – present study, São Paulo, Santa Catarina) ( MacFarland, 1909; Vannucci, 1952: as Spurilla gabriellae ; Schrödl, 2003; Pimpão & Magalhães,2004:as S.neapolitana ; Domínguez et al., 2008: as S. neapolitana ; García et al., 2008; Padula et al., 2012; Carmona et al., 2014a, b; Ferreira-Jr. et al., 2015; Galvão-Filho et al., 2015).

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).