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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

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

    Alder, J., and A. Hancock. 1864. Notice of a collection of nudibranchiate Mollusca made in India by Walter Elliot Esq. with descriptions of several new genera and species. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 5 (3-4): 113-147.
    Baker, B. J. 2016. Marine Biomedicine: From Beach to Bedside. CRC Press.
    Ballesteros, M., E. Madrenas, and M. Pontes. 2023. OPK - Opistobranquis. (https://opistobranquis.info/).
    Debelius, H. 2001. Asia Pacific reef guide : Malaysia, Indonesia, Palau, Philippines, tropical Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand. IKAN-Unterwasserarchiv.
    Debelius, H. 1996. Nudibranchs and Sea Snails: Indo-Pacific Field Guide. IKAN-Unterwasserarchiv, Frankfurt, Germany, 321 pp, 1000+ color illus.
    Debelius, H., and R. H. Kuiter. 2007. Nudibranchs of the world. IKAN- Unterwasserarchiv, Frankfurt.
    George, J. D. 2012. Reef-associated macroinvertebrates of the SE Gulf. p. 253-308 In Riegl, B.M.; Purkis, S.J. (eds) 2012. Coral Reefs of the Gulf: adaptation to climatic extremes. Springer Science.
    Gosliner, T. M. 1979. The systematics of the Aeolidiacea (Nudibranchia: Mollusca) of the Hawaiian Islands, with descriptions of two new species. Pacific Science 33(1): 37-77.
    Powell, A. W. B. 1979. New Zealand Mollusca. Marine, Land and Freshwater Shells. Collins, Auckland, xiv.
    Rothman, B. S., H. K. Mienis, and B. S. Galil. 2017. Alien facelinid nudibranchs in the Eastern Mediterranean: first report of Phidiana militaris (Alder and Hancock, 1864) and report of Caloria indica (Bergh, 1896) 30 years after its previous sighting. BioInvasions Records, 6 (2): 125-128.
    Rudman, W. B. 1980. Aeolid opisthobranch molluscs (Glaucidae) from the Indian Ocean and the south-west Pacific. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 68: 139-172.
    Rudman W.B. et al. 1998. Phidiana militaris accessed through: Sea Slug Forum on 2014-12-14. (http://seaslugforum.net/showall/phidmili).
    Sachidhanandam, U., R. C. Willan, and L. M. Chou. 2000. Checklist of the nudibranchs (Opisthobranchia : Nudibranchia) of the South China Sea. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 513–537.
    Venkataraman, K., C. Raghunathan, and C. Sivaperuman. 2012. Ecology of Faunal Communities on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Springer.
    Willan, R. C. 1987. Description of a new aeolid nudibranch (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) belonging to the genus Phidiana. N.Z. J. Zool. 14(3):409-417.
    Willan, R. C., and N. Coleman. 1984. Nudibranchs of Australasia, 56 pp. Sea Australia Productions Ltd.
    Willan, R. C., and J. Morton. 1984. Marine Molluscs, Part 2; Opisthobranchia. University of Auckland, Leigh Marine Laboratory. Auckland, New Zealand: 106 pp.
    WoRMS Editorial Board. 2023. World Register of Marine Species. WoRMS. (http://www.marinespecies.org).

    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) "Phidiana militaris" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 14/10/2016. Accessed: 07/06/2023. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/31zdn)

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