Home Guide to Opisthobranchs Nudibranchia Cladobranchia Aeolidioidea Berghia coerulescens

Berghia coerulescens

Berghia coerulescens (Laurillard, 1832)

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Ringipleura  

 

Superorder

Nudipleura  

 

Order

Nudibranchia  

 

Suborder

Cladobranchia  

 

Superfamily

Aeolidioidea  

 

Family

Aeolidiidae  

 

Genus

Berghia  

 

Species

Berghia coerulescens  (Laurillard, 1832)

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 196603).
Synonyms

  • Berghia modesta Trinchese, 1882
  • Eolidia coerulescens Laurillard, 1832 (original)
  • Eolidia souleyeti Vérany, 1853
  • Eolis peregrina Delle Chiaje, 1841
  • Spurilla caerulescens (Laurillard, 1830)

Description
This species can reach more than 40 mm in length. The body is white and slightly translucent, with the back tinted reddish or light pink, slightly darker between the first groups of cerata and with bluish tones in some areas. There are two long orange spots on the head. The oral palps are slightly bluish at the base and opaque and tinted orange in the tip. The rhinophores are smooth and translucent at the base and rounded with short orange warts near the tip, the apex itself is white. The cerata are grouped in 8-10 groups on each side of the body, arranged more or less evenly over the dorsum. The cerata are colored blue with an orange apical end, they are long, narrow and hold the brown digestive gland but it is masked by the blue coloration of the cerata skin. The foot is wide and coloured soft pink and the anterior zone holds and a pair of fine triangular propodials palps.

Biology
This species can be found under stones or in shallow infralittoral rocky walls with plenty of hydrarians and other invertebrates. It has been reported that it feeds on anemones Aiptasia mutabilis and Sagartia sp. The spawn consists of a white, translucent spirally wound ribbon of about 25mm in diameter with eggs 125 microns of diameter.

Etymology

  • Berghia. In honor of the Danish physician and malacologist Dr. Rudolph Bergh, (1824-1909).
  • Coerulescens. Colored blue.

Distribution
B.coerulescens is present along the Atlantic coasts of Europe and the western Mediterranean, including the Adriatic. In the Iberian Peninsula it has been found in the Cantabrian coast, the coast of Portugal, in the Straits of Gibraltar and in all the Mediterranean shores. In Catalonia it has been reported in various localities of the Costa Brava, such as Cadaqués, L’Escala, Palamós, Lloret and Tossa de Mar.
The presence of the genus Berghia Trinchese, 1877 in the western Atlantic has been the traditional object of discussion in malacological circles. The Atlantic species were assigned by the first authors to the European species Berghia coerulescens (Laurillard, 1830) and Berghia verrucicornis (A. Costa, 1864), which is why they were considered ampiathlantic species. However, several authors already suspected the existence of different Berghia species in the western Atlantic (Edmunds, 1968; García-Gómez & Thompson, 1990; Muniain & Ortea, 1999), however the lack of specimens from the western Atlantic for their study prevented clarifying the taxonomy of the genus until the work by Dominguez et al. (2008).

Known georeferenced records of the species: Berghia coerulescens
Sources:
: OBIS
: GROC 2010-2011
: Enric Madrenas
: João Pedro Silva
: Bernard Picton
: GBIF.ORG		 : OPK
: VIMAR
: Manuel Ballesteros.
: M@re Nostrum
: Altres fonts
: Marine Regions

Similar species
Trinchesia caerulea, with the rhinophores smooth and thin, while B.coerulescens has them thick and with orange coloured warts.

Abundance

    Western Mediterranean: ★★☆☆☆
    Eastern Mediterranean: ☆☆☆☆☆
    Atlantic Ocean: ★☆☆☆☆
Month

This chart displays the monthly observation probability for Berghia coerulescens based on our own records.

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Bibliography

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Further reading

Cite this article as:

Ballesteros, M., Madrenas, E. & Pontes, M. (2023) "Berghia coerulescens" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 16/05/2012. Accessed: 30/03/2023. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/7Ot6v)

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