Home Guide to Opisthobranchs Nudibranchia Cladobranchia Tritonioidea Candiella coralliumrubri

Candiella coralliumrubri

Candiella coralliumrubri  (Doneddu, Sacco & Trainito, 2014)

Candiella coralliumrubri by Egidio Trainito

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Ringipleura  

 

Superorder

Nudipleura  

 

Order

Nudibranchia  

 

Suborder

Cladobranchia  

 

Superfamily

Tritonioidea  

 

Family

Tritoniidae  

 

Subfamily

Tritoniinae  

 

Genus

Candiella  

 

Species

Candiella coralliumrubri  (Doneddu, Sacco & Trainito, 2014)

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 1669250).
Taxonomic note: In 2023 a paper by De Vasconcelos et al. (2023) assigns former Tritonia coralliumrubri to the genus Candiella based on phylogenetic facts.
Actual species composition for the genus Candiella is: Candiella cincta (Pruvot-Fol 1937) comb. nov., Ca. coralliumrubri (Doneddu et al. 2014) comb. nov., Ca. lineata comb. nov., Ca. manicata comb. nov., Ca. odhneri comb. nov., Ca. pallescens Eliot 1906 comb. nov., Ca. plebeia, Ca. striata comb. nov. and Ca. taliartensis Ortea and Moro, 2009 comb. nov.

Synonyms

  • Tritonia coralliumrubri  Doneddu, Sacco & Trainito, 2014

Description
The few specimens found so far had a body length between 7 and 11 mm. The body is elongated and limaciform, the thickness of the back half decreases gradually to a tapered tail. The forward margin of the foot is rounded, while the rear end terminates in a tapered tail. On each side of the back there are fifteen arborescent appendages of different sizes, placed at different heights and arranged symmetrically on both sides of the body, the first are placed immediately behind the rhinophores and the very small last ones, placed at about one mm of the tip of the tail. It has a bilobed oral veil, with 6 fingerlike elongated processes in each lobe. The rhinophoric sheaths are cylindrical, slightly flared at its upper end, and with the upper margin decorated with short processes. The rhinophores have the typical appearance of the family, with an off-axis finger-shaped process surrounded by a number of tip-forked processes. The base body colour is greyish white, translucent at the edges of the mantle and the oral veil. The back of the dorsum is dotted with blackish blotches, sometimes confluent, absent from the oral veil, the rhinophoric sheaths, the rhinophores and the dorsal appendages. The center of the dorsal area, rhomboid shaped, appears brighter because of a lower density of dark spots.

Biology
Little is known about the biology of this species. It has not been possible to observe this species feeding on coral polyps, but all known specimens have been found on live branches of red coral, not the old branches nor around the coral colonies, so the hypothesis that this species feeds on this anthozoarian is plausible. All specimens were found at depths from 35 m but this may be due to the red coral own depth distribution.

Etymology

  • Candiella. Classic authors did not usually explain the origin of the chosen names.
  • Coralliumrubri, derives from Corallium rubrum, the alcyonarian on which this species lives in association.

Distribution
The first samples were found in May 1993 outside the submarine promontory of Capo Caccia (Alghero, northwestern Sardinia, Italy) at a depth of about 100 meters (Doneddu, Manunza and Trainito, 1995). In May 2012 new specimens were found in Capo Mannu (western Sardinia, Italy), at a depth of 35 meters.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Candiella coralliumrubri
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 Candiella coralliumrubri based on our own records.

More pictures

Candiella coralliumrubri by Egidio Trainito
Candiella coralliumrubri by Egidio Trainito

Bibliography

    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2025. OPK - Opistobranquis. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/.
    De Vasconcelos Silva F, Pola M, Cervera JL. 2023. A stomach plate to divide them all: a phylogenetic reassessment of the family Tritoniidae (Nudibranchia: Cladobranchia). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. XX:1–32. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad013.
    Doneddu M, Sacco F, Trainito E. 2014. Una nuova specie di Tritonia Cuvier 1798 (Opisthobranchia: Nudibranchia: Tritoniidae) dalla Sardegna occidentale associata al corallo rosso mediterraneo, Corallium rubrum (Linnè, 1758) [In:] Trainito E., Doneddu M., 2014. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo. Il Castello pp.192.
    Doneddu M, Manunza B, Trainito E. 1995. Opistobranchi del Nord Sardegna: censimento ed annotazioni. Biologia Marina Mediterranea II (2): 369-370.
    Gray JE. 1850. [text]. In: Gray, M.E., Figures of molluscous animals, selected from various authors. Vol. 4. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. p. 219. Available from https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/11632090.
    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.
    Trainito E, Doneddu M. 2014. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo. 2nd. Il Castello. 192 p.
    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:

Pontes, Miquel (2012-2025) "Candiella coralliumrubri" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 14/04/2015. Accessed: 03/02/2025. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=19068)