Berghia creutzbergi

Berghia creutzbergi Er. Marcus & Ev. Marcus, 1970

Berghia creutzbergi by Linda Ianniello

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 creutzbergi  Er. Marcus & Ev. Marcus, 1970

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 532441).
Synonyms

  • Millereolidia ritmica (Ortea, Caballer & Espinosa, 2003)
  • Milleria ritmica Ortea, Caballer & Espinosa, 2003
  • Spurilla creutzbergi (Er. Marcus & Ev. Marcus, 1970)

Description
Body up to 30mm long, coloured grey, cream or brown, with large yellowish-white oval spots on the head, behind the rhinophores and the dorsal interceratal areas, also on the cerata. These spots are formed by a dense aggregate of white dots. The cardiac area is also white, prominent and with a slightly wrinkled surface. The rhinophores have a grainy surface like a raspberry, and arise from a single smooth basal peduncle. Their external sides are somewhat concave and the internal ones almost flat; they present 11 rings with 6-8 regular sized granules (6 at the tips) of which the two apical rings and the mucron are yellowish white, as are the two central posterior granules of each ring, originating a white vertical band along each rhinophore; the rest of the granules are of the same hue as the body. The oral tentacles are long and cylindrical, truncated at the tip, with the base as the body colour and golden tips. The cerata contract when the animal is in motion so they look globose, also with the base as the body colour and golden upper half and apex. When the animal is at rest, the cerata lower half become slimmer and stretched, doubling the extension they have in motion. There are five regularly separated groups of cerata on each side of the body. The biggest cerata are located on the anterior-uppermost part of the flank and they increase in number and decrease in size to the lower part of the flank. The number of cerata in each group was: 15 (1st): 7 (2nd): 7 (3rd): 5 (4th) and 3 (5th). The genital opening is below the first group of cerata, very close to their base and the anus in the first right group of postcardiac cerata. The anterior border of the foot is rounded and has wide base angles with the tentacular prolongation facing rearward; the sole is wider than the body and of the same colour. The tail is formed by a sharp thinning of the animal’s body behind the last cerata.

Biology
Lives in shallow water with seagrass bed and high hydrodinamism. Cerata rock from side to side when the animal is in motion, a very distinctive rhythmic movement. The animal is able to stand on the thin tail with the rest of the body free to sense its surroundings, then choose a direction and move that way. It also appears that the brown background colour of the body is caused by zooxanthellae in ducts of the digestive gland, ramifying through the body wall.

Etymology

  • Berghia. In honor to the Danish doctor and malacologist Dr. Rudolph Bergh, (1824-1909).
  • Creutzbergi. Possibly named after Dr. Peter Hans Creutzberg, a Dutch biologist and filmmaker of nature who lived in Colombia, where he collected molluscan fossils.

Distribution
Reported in the tropical Western Atlantic, in Florida, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cuba, Barbados, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Brasil (Valdés et al., 2006; Carmona et al., 2014) and Panamà (Goodheart et al., 2016). There is a report in the Eastern Atlantic, in Tufia, Gran Canaria, Spain (Sabina López, Pers.Com.).

Known georeferenced records of the species: Berghia creutzbergi
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

Abundance

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

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

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More pictures

Bibliography

    Caballer M, Ortea J, Rivero N, et al. 2015. The opisthobranch gastropods (Mollusca: Heterobranchia) from Venezuela: an annotated and illustrated inventory of species. Zootaxa 4034 (2): 201–256.
    Carmona L, Pola M, Gosliner TM, et al. 2013. A tale that morphology fails to tell: A molecular phylogeny of Aeolidiidae (Aeolidida, Nudibranchia, Gastropoda). PLoS ONE 8(5): e63000. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063000.
    Carmona L, Pola M, Gosliner TM, et al. 2014. The atlantic-mediterranean genus Berghia Trinchese, 1877 (Nudibranchia: Aeolididiidae): taxonomic review and phylogenetic analysis. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 80: 482-498.
    Domínguez M, Troncoso JS, García FJ. 2008. The family Aeolidiidae Gray, 1827 (Gastropoda Opisthobranchia) from Brazil, with a description of a new species belonging to the genus Berghia Trinchese, 1877. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 153(2):349–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00390.x.
    Edmunds M. 2015. Opisthobranchiate Mollusca from Ghana, Aeolidiidae, with consideration of several caribbean species. Journal of Conchology Vol. 42(2): 125-161.
    Edmunds M, Just H. 1983. Eolid nudibranchiate mollusca from Barbados. Journal of Molluscan Studies 49 (3): 185-203.
    Garcia FJ, Bertsch H. 2009. Diversity and distribution of the Gastropoda Opisthobranchia from the Atlantic Ocean: A global biogeographic approach. Scientia Marina. 73(1):153–160. https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.2009.73n1153.
    Goodheart JA, Ellingson RA, Vital XG, et al. 2016. Identification guide to the heterobranch sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Bocas del Toro, Panama. Marine Biodiversity Records. 9(1):56. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41200-016-0048-z.
    Gosliner TM. 1985. The aeolid nudibranch family Aeolidiidae (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) from tropical southern Africa. Annals of the South African Museum, 95(6): 233-267.
    Gosliner TM. 1979. The systematics of the Aeolidiacea (Nudibranchia: Mollusca) of the Hawaiian Islands, with descriptions of two new species. Pacific Science 33(1): 37-77.
    Marcus E d. BR. 1977. An annotated checklist of the western Atlantic warm water opisthobranchs. J. Molluscan Stud., Suppl 4:1-23.
    Marcus Er., Marcus Ev. 1970. Opisthobranchs from Curaçao and faunistically related regions. Studies on the fauna of Curaçao and other Caribbean Islands. 33(122):1–129.
    Ortea J, Caballer M, Espinosa, J. 2003. Nuevos Aeolidaceos (Mollusca: Gastropoda) de Costa Rica. Avicennia 16: 129-142.
    Ortea J, Caballer M, Espinosa J. 2004. Millereolidia nomen novum para Milleria Ortea, Caballer y Espinosa, 2003 (Gastropoda: Aeolididae). Revista de la Academia Canaria de Ciencias 15(3-4): 329.
    Valdés A, Hamann J, Behrens DW, et al. 2006. Caribbean sea slugs: a field guide to the opisthobranch mollusks from the tropical northwestern Atlantic. Washington: Sea Challengers Natural History Books. 289 pp.

    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:

Pontes, Miquel, Manuel Ballesteros, Enric Madrenas (2023) "Berghia creutzbergi" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 07/02/2021. Accessed: 19/03/2024. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=31544)

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