Doto cervicenigra

Doto cervicenigra Ortea & Bouchet, 1989

Doto cervicenigra @ Sta. Maria al Bagno, Lecce, Italy 6/04/2016 by Cataldo Licchelli

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 cervicenigra  Ortea & Bouchet, 1989

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 139628).
Description
This is a small animal as it is about 5 mm long. The body is semitransparent, whitish, with a remarkable black spot on the dorsal part of the head that goes backwards between the rhinophores, and some stains of the same color on the dorsum and sides body. The rhinophores have more than twice the height of the rhinophoric sheath, they have purplish  black spots in the lower half and show a large white spot at the tip. The edge of the rhinophoric sheath is dotted with white spots. There are 6 pairs of cerata, where the largest have two groups of globulous, almost spherical, tubercles, specially the apical tubercle, that have a subcutaneous purplish black spot, surrounded by white opaque pigment can even mask the black point. But for the subapical group, no tubercles are developed on the inner side of the cerata, nor pseudobranchs could be observed. The hazel coloured digestive gland is visible by transparency in the cerata. The gonad is visible by transparency between the 2nd and 3rd group of papillae, while the anal papilla is between the 1st and 2nd group on the right side of the body.

Biology
Very little is known about the biology of this species that, like others of the same genus, is closely associated with pennate hydrozoans of the genus Aglaophenia (A. kirkenpaueri, A. pluma, A. tubiformis) or Lytocarpia (L. myriophyllum). These animals keep a perfect mimicry on the hydrozoans so they are very difficult to observe with the naked eye. The existence of specimens in the colonies can be guessed when spawns are observed on them. The specimen on which this species was described was collected by algal scraping in about 5 meters of water at Calvi (Corsica, France).

Etymology

  • Doto, from Latin Doto, a sea nymph, from Greek Dōtō
  • Cervicenigra, from Latin “Cervix”, neck/head and “nigra”, from Latin “niger”, black, dark, in reference to the dark blotch of the cephalic region.

Distribution
It is known to be present in the western Mediterranean. Apart from the original description in Calvi (Corsica, France) it has also been reported in the Gulf of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy), in Porto Cesáreo (Lecce, Italy) and in Toretó Island (Mallorca, Spain). In Catalonia it has been found from Blanes to L’Escala.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Doto cervicenigra
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

Similar species
Doto rosea has the ceratal tubercles without apical spots and the body without black stains.

Abundance

    Western Mediterranean: ★☆☆☆☆
    Eastern Mediterranean: ☆☆☆☆☆
    Atlantic Ocean: ☆☆☆☆☆
Month

This chart displays the monthly observation probability for Doto cervicenigra based on our own records.

Videos

 

More pictures

Bibliography

    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2016. Actualización del catálogo de los moluscos opistobranquios (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) de las costas catalanas. Spira. 6:1–28.
    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2023. OPK - Opistobranquis. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/.
    Ballesteros M, Pontes M, Madrenas E. 2019. Els nudibranquis del mar català. Figueres: Brau Edicions. 192 p.
    Bedulli D, Cattaneo-Vietti R, Chemello R, et al. 1995. Gastropoda Opisthobranchia, Divasibranchia, Gymnomorpha, Fascicolo 15, pp. 1-23.  In: A. Minelli, A. Ruffo, & S. La Posta (Eds.). Checklist delle specie fauna italiana. Bologna: Calderini (Checklist delle specie della Fauna Italiana).
    Cattaneo-Vietti R, Thompson TE. 1989. Mediterranean opisthobranch molluscs: a zoogeographic approach. Bollettino Malacologico (Pubblicazione Mensile Edita dalla Societa Italiana di Malacologia) 25(5-8):183-204.
    Cattaneo-Vietti R, Chemello R, Giannuzzi-Savelli R. 1990. Atlas of Mediterranean Nudibranchs. Rome, Italy: La Conchiglia. 264 p.
    Furfaro G, Vitale F, Licchelli C, et al. 2020. Two Seas for One Great Diversity: Checklist of the Marine Heterobranchia (Mollusca; Gastropoda) from the Salento Peninsula (South-East Italy). Diversity. 12(12):171.
    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. 2001. El género Doto Oken, 1815 (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) en el mar Caribe: Historia natural y descripción de nuevas especies. Avicennia Suppl. 3 : 1-46.
    Ortea J, Bouchet P. 1989. Description de deux nouveau Doto de Méditerranée occidentale (Mollusca: Nudibranchia). Bollettino Malacologico 24 (9-12): 261-268.
    Perrone AS. 1990. Recenti acquisizioni faunistiche relative agli Opistobranchi (Aplysiomorpha, Pleurobrancomorpha, Sacoglossa, Nudibranchia) del Mediterraneo. Lavori (Soc. Ven. Sc. Nat) 15:21- 27.
    Prkić J, Petani A, Iglić Ð, et al. 2018. Stražnjoškržnjaci Jadranskoga Mora: Slikovni Atlas i Popis Hrvatskih Vrsta / Opisthobranchs of the Adriatic Sea: Photographic Atlas and List of Croatian Species. Bibinje: Ronilaćki Klub Sveti Roko. 464 p. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/en/recursos/llibres-recomanats/opisthobranchs-of-the-adriatic-sea/.
    Rufray X, Girard P, Le Bris S, et al. 2021. Liste commentée des limaces de mer de la lagune de Thau, Hérault. Les cahiers de la fondation Biotope. 36:1–189. Available from https://www.biotope.fr/download/230907/.
    Sabelli B, Gianuzzi-Savelli R, Bedulli D. 1990. Catalogo annotato dei Molluschi marini del Mediterraneo. Libreria Naturalistica Bolognese. Bologna, Italy: 348 pp.
    Templado J, Villanueva R. 2010. Checklist of Phylum Mollusca. pp. 148-198 In Coll, M., et al., 2010. The biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea: estimates, patterns, and threats. PLoS ONE 5(8):36pp.
    Trainito E. 2005. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo : guida al riconoscimento dei molluschi opistobranchi. Trezzano sul Naviglio (Milano): Il Castello.
    Trainito E, Doneddu M. 2014. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo. 2nd. Il Castello. 192 p.
    Valdés A, Heros V. 1998. The types of Recent and certain fossil opisthobranch molluscs in the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris. Zoosystema 20(4):695-742.
    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:

Ballesteros, M., Madrenas, E. & Pontes, M. (2023) "Doto cervicenigra" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 16/09/2015. Accessed: 19/03/2024. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=19946)

To copy this cite click on the right button.