Doto caballa

Doto caballa  Ortea, Moro & Bacallado, 2010

Doto caballa @ Ceuta, Spain 25-04-2010 by Leopoldo Moro Abad

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Ringipleura  

 

Superorder

Nudipleura  

 

Order

Nudibranchia  

 

Suborder

Cladobranchia  

 

Superfamily

Dendronotoidea  

 

Family

Dotidae  

 

Genus

Doto  

 

Species

Doto caballa  Ortea, Moro & Bacallado, 2010

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 548367).
Description
The body is tall and robust, decreasing its profile and narrowing in the posterior third to form a thin and sharp tail from the sixth pair of ceratas, which are very little developed. The color of the body is translucent white, completely covered with small black spots, including the spaces between the ceratas. The cream-colored internal organs are visible by transparency throughout the body, except the tail. The head has a convex profile and it is cornered by two wide oral lobes that follow the curvature of the head. The rhinophores are translucent white with a slight yellowish hue, and covered with opaque white spots along the stem. The rhinophoric sheaths have a very wide quadrangular opening, with the front edge exposed and dotted with white; their outer walls are dotted with black spots like the rest of the body, and their height is half the length of the rhinophores. It has up to six pairs of ceratas, proportionally large and easily autotomizable; The first four pairs are very large compared to the others. Each cerata is transparent so the granular textured and cream-colored digestive gland can be seen by transparency; it can have up to 5-6 transverse rows of tubercles, with a maximum number of 12 tubercles in the middle row of the greater cerata. Each tubecle has a globose shape with a narrow base, with a small bluish-black sphere inside. On the inner side of the larger ceratas there could be a branched pseudobranch. The anal papilla is white and is located between the first and second cerata on the right side of the body.

Biology
It feeds on hydrarians, although these are not identified in the description of the species. The spawn has not been described either. Its look reminds that of Doto millbayana, and they can be confused since they are both found in the same location at Sagres (Portugal), but they are easily differentiated because D. millbayana has black dots and spots on the tubercles of the ceratas, in addition to the dark central sphere, missing in D. caballa. In addition, the abrupt narrowing of the posterior part of the body, the quadrangular edge of the rhinophoric sheaths and the coloration of the digestive gland in the ceratas of D. caballa are characteristic traits.

Etymology

  • Doto. Name of a Nereid, a sea nymph in Greek mythology.
  • Caballa. Referring to the popular adjective of the people from Ceuta, caballa, name that comes to show the attachment of the people to their land, traditions and idiosyncrasies; a very unique and beautiful autonomous city, melting pot cradling two oceans and two continents.

Distribution
This species has been found in the waters of Ceuta (Spain) and off the coast of Sagres (Portugal). To date it has not been reported anywhere else.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Doto caballa
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 Doto caballa based on our own records.

More pictures

    We have no (more) pictures for Doto caballa

Bibliography

    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2023. OPK - Opistobranquis. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/.
    Long SJ. 2006. Bibliography of Opisthobranchia 1554-2000. Bayside Books & Press, Tustin, CA, U.S.A. 672p.
    McDonald G. 2009. Bibliographia Nudibranchia. 2nd Online Edition, Annotated. 1072 pp  Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz. Available from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8115h0wz.
    Ortea J, Moro L, Ocaña O, et al. 2010. Contribución al estudio del género Doto Oken, 1815 (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) en Ceuta (España) con la descripción de nuevas especies. Revista de la Academia Canaria de Ciencias 21(3-4): 81-91 [issued september 2010].
    Trainito E, Doneddu M. 2014. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo. 2nd. Il Castello. 192 p.
    WoRMS Editorial Board. 2023. World Register of Marine Species. WoRMS. Available from 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) "Doto caballa" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 17/05/2012. Accessed: 19/03/2024. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=665)

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