Facelina bostoniensis

Facelina bostoniensis (Couthouy, 1838)

• Aeolis gigas Costa A., 1866
• Eolidia jani Vérany, 1846 
• Eolidia panizzai Vérany, 1846 
• Eolis bostoniensis Couthouy, 1838 (original)
• Eolis curta Alder & Hancock, 1843 
• Eolis drummondi Thompson W., 1844
• Eolis tenuibranchialis Alder & Hancock, 1845

Description
This species can reach a large size (up to 55 mm in length) but in general these mediterranean speciments measure between 25 and 30 mm in length. The body is semitransparent, with the back pigmented cream and pink on the head, which is covered by small white stains that, between the rinophores form a discontinuous line that continues briefly behind them. As in other species the esophagus can be viewed by transparency in the head and behind the rhinophores it is like a reddinsh cord curved to the left. Los oral tentacles are very long and cream colored, color that softens progressively to the tip, there could be minute bluish of whitish stains on the dorsal side of the oral tentacles. Rhinophoros are translucent with pink stains and a white apex, they have 20 to 30 lamella, alternatively wide and narrow and along its length, the rhinophoric nerve channel can be appreciated. Eyes are located on the back of the rhinophores’ base. The body is covered with 6-7 cerata groups and, unlike in other species of Facelina, they appear quite close, without apparent spaces among groups. cerata are long, thin and translucent, so the digestive gland can be seen inside as a narrow brown cordon that ends in an enlarged white cnidosac in the apex. The front side of the cerata is sprayed white, with a diffuse subapical stain of the same color. The foot is very large and is semitransparent, its front part ending in a pair of wide, triangular propodial tentacles.

Biology
It is a very active species that feeds on a wide range of tubular hydrozoans as Tubularia larynx, T. indivisa, Clava multicornis, Clytia johnstoni, Coryne eximia, Dynamena pumila, Obelia geniculata, Eudendrium ramosum. It may prey also on polyps of the jellyfish Aurelia aurita, stauromedusae of the gender Lucernaria and even other nudibranchs. It lives under stones from the intertidal zone up to 30-40 meters of water, preferably on rocky walls with an abundance of sessile invertebrates. The spawn is a flat spiral has several turns with several thousands of white eggs.

Etymology

• Bostoniensis. Means “of Boston”. Boston was the largest city in the state of Massachusetts, in the United States, until the founding of Philadelphia. Boston was named after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, home of many of the settlers who founded it.
• Facelina – Latin for “lined face”.

Distribution
This species was formerly known as F. drummondi. It is an anfiatlantic species, initially described in the shores of Massachusetts (USA). It was later cited in the coast of Maine (USA), then in the Atlantic european shores from Norway to the Iberian Peninsula, Cape Verde and also in the Western Mediterranean. In the Iberian Peninsula it has been cited along the Cantabrian coast, in Portugal, in the southeast coast and in Catalonia (Illa Faradell, Badalona, Cadaqués and Cubelles).

Known georeferenced records of the species: Facelina bostoniensis
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

References for the species: Facelina bostoniensis

Cantabria: Ortea (1977c, as F. drummondi). Portugal: De Oliveira (1895), Hidalgo (1916), Nobre (1932) (all records as F. drummondi), García-Gómez et al. (1991). Levante: Templado (1982b, as F. drummondi). Catalunya: Ros (1975, 1978, 1985a), Ros & Altimira (1977), Ballesteros (1980, 1984, 1985), Pereira (1981), M@re Nostrum [Badalona 6/2001]. En todos los casos excepto M@re Nostrum citada como F. drummondi.
General: Abric, 1904a:6; Ballesteros, 1984b:48; 1985:30; Beaumont, 1900:841; Bergh, 1860:321; 1868:210; 1874:400; 1876b:756; 1882:25; Colgan, 1914:187; Eliot, 1906d:157; Hoffmann, 1926:21; Jutting & Engel, 1936:69; Pruvot-Fol, 1953b:57[P]; Riedl, 1970:433; Schmekel, 1970:151; Trinchese, 1881:41; 1881a:41; Vicente, 1963a:177; 1967:157; 1981:79; Walton, 1908:236 as Facelina drummondi; Bergh, 1885:44; Brown, 1981:335; Brown & Picton, 1979:21; Dekker, 1989:103; Hayward, Wigham, & Yonow, 1990:722; Just & Edmunds, 1985:130[P]; Meyer, 1970:143; Picton & Morrow, 1994:124[P]; Sabelli, Giannuzzi-Savelli, & Bedulli, 1990:449; Thompson, 1988:316[P]; Thompson & Brown, 1984:148[P]; Verrill, 1880a:389 as Facelina bostoniensis
Sources: Cervera et al., 2004, Ballesteros, 2007 & 2016, McDonald, 2006 and other sources.

Abundance

Western Mediterranean:
Eastern Mediterranean:
Atlantic Ocean:

More pictures

Facelina cf. bostoniensis @ Badalona (Barcelona, Spain) by Miquel Pontes

Facelina cf. bostoniensis @ Badalona (Barcelona, Spain) by Miquel Pontes

Facelina bostoniensis (www.nudibranch.org) by Jim Anderson

Facelina cf. bostoniensis by José Carlos García Gómez

Facelina cf. bostoniensis by José Carlos García Gómez

Facelina bostoniensis @ Den Osse, Netherlands 16-12-2016 by Stefan Verheyen

Facelina bostoniensis @ Netherlands 19-07-2017 by Stefan Verheyen

Facelina bostoniensis @ Netherlands 7-02-2018 by Stefan Verheyen

Facelina bostoniensis @ Netherlands by Stefan Verheyen

Bibliography

1246567 Facelina bostoniensis items 1 entomological-society-of-america author asc 1 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

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