Home Guide to Opisthobranchs Nudibranchia Cladobranchia Fionoidea Eubranchus prietoi

Eubranchus prietoi

Eubranchus prietoi Llera & Ortea, 1981

Eubranchus prietoi by José Carlos García Gómez

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Ringipleura  

 

Superorder

Nudipleura  

 

Order

Nudibranchia  

 

Suborder

Cladobranchia  

 

Superfamily

Fionoidea  

 

Family

Eubranchidae  

 

Genus

Eubranchus  

 

Species

Eubranchus prietoi  Llera & Ortea, 1981

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 139769).

Taxonomic note: The phylogenetic analyses performed by Cella et al. (2016) revealed that the traditional Tergipedidae family is polyphyletic and belongs to a larger monophyletic clade including members of the traditional families Eubranchidae, Fionidae and Calmidae; this was an unexpected result, since the validity of these taxa and their distinctness from the Tergipedidae was never questioned before. They proposed to join the families Tergipedidae, Eubranchidae, Calmidae and Fionidae under the name of Fionidae. This decision has been reinterpreted and completed in the paper by Korshunova et al. (2017) because it obviated evident morphological and molecular aspects.

Description
Size up to 7 mm in length. Elongated and narrow body, coloured translucent white with dark brown and white spots and punctuations all over the body, including head, oral palps, rhinophores and cerata. Oral palps short, rhinophores long. Four or five groups of cerata on both sides of the back, the two anteriormost with two cerata and the rest with only one. Cerata are also semitransparent, quite long, narrow at the base and with tuberculate protrusions. The digestive gland, dark brown in color, can be seen by transparency on the back forming a zigzagging Y-shaped cord, from just behind the rhinophores and along the body; inside the cerata it is creamy white.

Biology
It lives and feeds on hydrozoans like Plumularia setacea. Egg strings are laid on top of the hydrozoan itself, are kidney-shaped and contain very few white eggs. It is a very cryptic species on the hydrariums where it lives.

Etymology

  • Eubranchus, from Greek, means “true gills”.
  • Prietoi, dedicated to the Counselor of Trade, Tourism and Fisheries of the Regional Council of Asturias (Spain), Mr. Alfredo Prieto Valiente, in recognition of his efforts for the creation of CRINAS (Center for Aquatic Research of Asturias).

Distribution
It has been reported from the Atlantic coasts of France, where it is very common in the Arcachon Bay, to the African coasts of Senegal and Ghana. Also observed in the western Mediterranean. In Catalonia it is a very rare species that has only been found in Tamariu and Sant Feliu de Guíxols.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Eubranchus prietoi
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
Eubranchus exiguus does not have a visible digestive gland in the form of a dark cord along the body, while in Tergipes tergipes, which does have it, the cerata are smooth.

Abundance

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

This chart displays the monthly observation probability for Eubranchus prietoi based on our own records.

More pictures

    We have no (more) pictures for Eubranchus prietoi

Bibliography

    Ballesteros, M., M. Pontes, and E. Madrenas. 2019. Els nudibranquis del mar català. Brau Edicions, Figueres.
    Ballesteros, M., E. Madrenas, and M. Pontes. 2023. OPK - Opistobranquis. (https://opistobranquis.info/).
    Cattaneo-Vietti, R., R. Chemello, and R. Giannuzzi-Savelli. 1990. Atlas of Mediterranean Nudibranchs. La Conchiglia, Rome, Italy.
    Cella, K., L. Carmona, I. Ekimova, A. Chichvarkhin, D. Schepetov, and T. M. Gosliner. 2016. A Radical Solution: The Phylogeny of the Nudibranch Family Fionidae. PLoS ONE 12/2016; 11(12):e0167800.
    Cervera, J. L., J. C. García-Gómez, F. J. García García, and J. Díaz Pavón. 2011. Familia Tergipedidae in Gofas S, Moreno D, Salas C. Moluscos marinos de Andalucía. Vol. II. Servicio de Publicaciones e Intercambio Científico, Universidad de Málaga.
    Cervera, J. L., G. Calado, C. Gavaia, M. A. E. Malaquías, J. Templado, M. Ballesteros, J. C. García-Gómez, and C. Megina. 2004. An annotated and updated checklist of the opisthobranchs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Spain and Portugal (including islands and archipelagos). Boletín Instituto Español de Oceanografía, 20 (1-4): 1-111. L.
    Cervera, J. L., J. Templado, J. C. García-Gómez, M. Ballesteros, J. Ortea, F. J. García, J. Ros, and A. A. Luque. 1988. Catálogo actualizado y comentado de los Opistobranquios (Mollusca, Gastropoda) de la Península Ibérica, Baleares y Canarias, con algunas referencias a Ceuta y la isla de Alborán. Iberus, supl. 1: 1-84.
    Garcia, F. J., and H. Bertsch. 2009. Diversity and distribution of the Gastropoda Opisthobranchia from the Atlantic Ocean: A global biogeographic approach. Scientia Marina. 73: 153–160.
    García-Gómez, J. C. 1987. Adiciones a la fauna de Opistobranquios del Estrecho de Gibraltar (sur de España), I. Iberus 7 (2): 197-209.
    García-Gómez, J. C. 2002. Paradigmas de una fauna insólita; Los moluscos opistobranquios del estrecho de Gibraltar (Serie Ciencias) 20: 397 pp. Instituto de Estudios Gibraltareños. Algeciras, Cádiz, Spain.
    García-Gómez, J. C., J. L. Cervera, and F. J. García. 1990. Description of Eubranchus linensis new species (Nudibranchia), with remarks on diauly in nudibranchs. Journal of Molluscan Studies 56: 585-593.
    Llera, E. M., and J. Ortea. 1981. Una nueva especie de Eubranchus (Mollusca: Nudibranchiata) del Norte de España. Bollettino Malacologico 17 (11-12): 265-270.
    Long, S. J. 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. (http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8115h0wz).
    Ortea, J., M. Caballer, L. Moro, and J. J. Bacallado. 2002. Descripción de dos especies nuevas del género Eubranchus Forbes, 1858 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia) en la Macaronesia. Avicennia 15: 91-100.
    Rudman W.B. et al. 1998. Eubranchus prietoi accessed through: Sea Slug Forum on 2014-12-14. (http://seaslugforum.net/showall/eubrprie).
    Sabelli, B., R. Gianuzzi-Savelli, and D. Bedulli. 1990. Catalogo annotato dei Molluschi marini del Mediterraneo. Libreria Naturalistica Bolognese. Bologna, Italy: 348 pp.
    Templado, J., and R. Villanueva. 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., and M. Doneddu. 2014. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo, 2nd. ed. Il Castello.
    Valdés, A., and V. Heros. 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. (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:

José Carlos García Gómez (2023) "Eubranchus prietoi" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 29/12/2015. Accessed: 22/09/2023. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=21051)

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