Berghia coerulescens

Berghia coerulescens (Laurillard, 1832)

• 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	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.

Videos

More pictures

Radula of Berghia coerulescens

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by Enric Madrenas

Berghia coerulescens by José Carlos García Gómez

Berghia coerulescens @ Pés de Galo, Sesimbra, Portugal 8-05-2011 by João Pedro Silva

Berghia coerulescens by Miquel Pontes

Berghia coerulescens by Miquel Pontes

Berghia coerulescens @ Eivissa, Spain by Joan Pereyra

Berghia coerulescens @ France by Pascal Girard

Berghia coerulescens @ Costa Brava by Miquel Pontes

Bibliography

1246567 Berghia coerulescens 1 eunomia-revista-en-cultura-de-la-legalidad 50 creator asc 1 568 https://opistobranquis.info/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/
Bibliography based on the works by Steve Long, 2006. Bibliography of Opisthobranchia 1554-2000 and Gary McDonald, 2009. Bibliographia Nudibranchia, with later updates from other resources.

Further reading

Cite this article as: