Phidiana militaris

Phidiana militaris (Alder & Hancock, 1864)

Phidiana militaris @ Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park, Hong Kong (6m) 20°C, 17-04-2016 by Markus Rummel

Taxonomy

	Superdomain	Biota
	Kingdom	Animalia
	Phylum	Mollusca
	Class	Gastropoda
	Subclass	Heterobranchia
	Infraclass	Euthyneura
	Subterclass	Ringipleura
	Superorder	Nudipleura
	Order	Nudibranchia
	Suborder	Cladobranchia
	Superfamily	Aeolidioidea
	Family	Facelinidae
	Genus	Phidiana
	Species	Phidiana militaris (Alder & Hancock, 1864)

	Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017) Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 404960).

Synonyms

Caloria militaris (Alder & Hancock, 1864)
Eolis militaris Alder & Hancock, 1864 (original)
Hervia dangeri Risbec, 1953
Learchis howensis Burn, 1966

Description
With a maximum length of 30mm (Debelius, 2001), it has an elongate pale flesh or white body terminating behind in a slender tappered tail considerably behind the cerata. A bright orange median line on the head forks anteriorly, with a branch running up the frontal edge of each oral tentacle. Another orange line runs along the posterior edge of each oral tentacle and then runs along each side of the body below the cerata. The cerata are long and smooth, swelling a little in the centre and grow in six groups on the sides of the body, the last groups almost meeting on the back. They are colored brown with a longitudinal orange or red line and with yellowish tips having a bluish line and a terminal tip which is white. The oral tentacles are large, stout and tapering, share the color scheme of cerata. Rhinophores and tentacular foot corners are also tipped with yellow and there is a broad orange band on the rhinophores. The anus is located on the right side of the body.

Biology
It feeds on hydroids (George, J.D., 2012). Very similar to Phidiana indica, they can be distinguished by the line between the rhinophores: Phidiana indica has a white line, Phidiana militaris has an orange or red line. Opioid ligands such a “phidianidines” have been obtained from this species (Baker, 2016) for a medical use, although it was later found that they could be easily synthethised.

Etymology

Militaris, from Latin, meaning military man, soldier or warrior, probably related to the orange pattern of the body.

Distribution
Native to the Indo-Pacific. Originally described from India, it has also been reported from the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Northern Australia. A report on the Scirè U-boat shipwreck, in the Haifa bay, northern Israel, in october 2016 is probably the first cite for the Mediterranean Sea, where it is an alien species.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Phidiana militaris
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 Phidiana militaris based on our own records.

More pictures

Bibliography

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 (2021) "Phidiana militaris" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 14/10/2016. Accessed: 14/04/2021. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/31zdn)

To copy this cite click on the right button.

Acknowledgements
To Markus Rummel (Euphotic Photography) for his pictures of this species.

Phidiana militaris