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Doto fragaria

Doto fragaria  Ortea & Bouchet, 1989

Doto fragaria @ Santa Maria al Bagno (Lecce), Jonian Sea, Italy 7m on hydroids and porifera, spring 2013 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 fragaria  Ortea & Bouchet, 1989

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 139639).
Description
White hyaline and semi-transparent body, allowing to see the cream coloured viscera inside. Some irregular brown spots on the dorsum and base of the cerata. Long rhinophores with white scores. Rhinophoric sheaths slightly open at the end, which is pigmented white, sometimes with a brown spot on the outer or inner face of the rhinophoric sheath. Four to five pairs of cerata on the back. The cerata have 4-5 groups of rounded tubercles that have a thick bluish-gray spot inside; The apical tubercle is also rounded. The digestive gland inside the cerata is a mild strawberry color (hence the specific name). The anal papilla is white and is between the first two cerata on the right side.

Biology
It lives on algae and Posidonia oceanica leaves with epibiont hydrarians. The spawn is 1-2 mm long, has a kidney shape and contains white eggs of about 100 microns.

Etymology

  • Doto, from Latin Doto, a sea nymph, from Greek Dōtō
  • Fragaria, because of the digestive gland colour, that reminds wild strawberries.

Distribution
After its description from specimens collected in northern Corsica (France), it has been located in the Gulf of Taranto (Italy) and in the Mediterranean Spanish coasts. In Catalonia it is considered a rare species that has only been observed in a few locations in the Costa Brava such as Cadaqués, L’Escala and Sant Feliu de Guíxols.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Doto fragaria
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 also has rounded ceratal tubercles, but these do not have the round dark spot present in D. fragaria, nor the red coloured digestive gland.

Abundance

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

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

 

More pictures

Doto fragaria @ Santa Maria al Bagno (Lecce), Jonian Sea, Italy 7m on hydroids and porifera, 2013 by Fabio Vitale
Doto fragaria @ Santa Maria al Bagno (Lecce), Jonian Sea, Italy 7m on hydroids and porifera, 2013 by Cataldo Licchelli
Doto fragaria @ Salento (Italy) by Fabio Vitale
Doto fragaria @ Salento (Italy) by Fabio Vitale
Doto fragaria @ Salento (Italy) by Fabio Vitale

Bibliography

    Ballesteros M, Pontes M, Madrenas E. 2019. Els nudibranquis del mar català. Figueres: Brau Edicions. 192 p.
    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2025. OPK - Opistobranquis. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/.
    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, 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/.
    Sabelli B, Gianuzzi-Savelli R, Bedulli D. 1990. Catalogo annotato dei Molluschi marini del Mediterraneo. Libreria Naturalistica Bolognese. Bologna, Italy: 348 pp.
    Sammut CR, Perrone AS. 1998. A preliminary check-list of Opisthobranchia (Mollusca, Gastropoda) from the Maltese Islands. Basteria 62(5-6): 221-240.
    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, 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. 2025. 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. (2012-2025) "Doto fragaria" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 16/10/2015. Accessed: 03/02/2025. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=20051)