Favorinus vitreus

Favorinus vitreus  Ortea, 1982

Favorinus vitreus @ Cala Margarida, Palamós by Enric Madrenas

Description
This nudibranch reaches up to 18mm in length, but it is usually much smaller; body translucent white (glassy) with the head, rhinophores, oral tentacles and cerata coloured opaque white, there’s also a opaque white band along the body dorsum that could be continuous or not. Cardiac area not prominent and unpigmented. Rhinophores are distinctively colored opaque white distally, translucent (juveniles) or yellowish (adults) basally, and have two small and inconspicuous distinct swelling or bulbs, the distal one coloured white. Cerata are arranged in arches in the first and second groups, the second one nearly a row, while in the third and fourth groups are arranged in rows. The fifth group is a solitary cera. Cerata without cnidosacs, but with a thick reddish spot inside the apex of the cerata in adults, that helps on the identification. Transparent digestive gland in the cerata is not visible because of the opaque white pigment on the skin. Foot translucent, with two anterior corners also unpigmented.

Biology
Original specimens collected on brown algae (Sargasum sp. and Cystoseira sp.) with small polyzoans and spawns of an undetermined Polyceridae. The animal does not autotomize its cerata when disturbed.

Etymology

• Favorinus. Possibly dedicated to the gallo-roman phylosopher Favorinus de Arles (80-160) sophyst, enemy of the stoicism; only fragments of his work are known.
• Vitreus. Latin word meaning “of glass”, resembling glass in its color, translucency, or glitter, because of the animal’s body transparency.

Distribution
Common in the Canary Islands (type locality), its distribution range reaches Cape Verde to the south and the Mediterranean to the north, where it has been found at Cabo de Palos (Murcia, Spain) and Cubelles (Barcelona, Spain).

More pictures

Bibliography

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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

• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Flickr pictures
• Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera
• NCBI GenBank
• OBIS - Search by Taxon
• World Register of Marine Species

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