Duvaucelia striata

Duvaucelia striata (Haefelfinger, 1963)

Synonyms

• Tritonia striata  Haefelfinger, 1963

Description
This is a member of Tritoniidae that can reach 15-20 mm in length. The body is high, semitransparent and with a quadrangular section. The viscera, coloured light brown, are visible by transparency from the head region to the third pair of dorsal papillae. The head has a cephalic veil with three pairs of white digitations, often of unequal size. Several black lines cross the back and side walls of the body. There is a continuous mediodorsal black line that forks into two at the front of the body, passes in front of the rhinophores and continues back along the side walls of the body, on the right side passing right above the genital papilla. On the side walls of the body there can also be 1-2 sometimes dashed black lines. The base of the dorsal arborizations there are curved black lines. The rhinophores are formed by several leaves with whitish lamellae, protected by a white sheath with a slightly wavy upper edge; the white apex of the rhinophores is club shaped. The eyes are located right in front of each rhinophore. There are up to 5 pairs of branched dorsal papillae with irregular lamellae. At the base of each dorsal papilla there are 1-2 small black spots.

Biology
This species is relatively common in dimly lit rocky walls with plenty of sponges, cnidarians and scyaphyllic algae. It has been cited feeding on the anthozoan Paralcyonium elegans.

Etymology

• Duvaucelia. In honor of Alfred Duvaucel (1792-1824), son of Anne-Marie Duvaucel’s marriage to Baron de Cuvier, with whom he was in India and Sumatra collecting objects of natural history for the Museum of Paris until his death, in Java, at the age of 31.
• Striata, from the word “stria” which means a series of repeated lines, with aesthetic appeal, found in nature, rock formations, good art, and pleasantly wrinkled skin.

Distribution
This species is found in the western Mediterranean and the Adriatic. Reports from the coasts of the Bay of Biscay should be verified. In the Iberian Mediterranean it has been found all along the coast as well as in the Balearic Islands. In Catalan waters it is frequent all along the Costa Brava.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Duvaucelia striata
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
Duvaucelia manicata, of similar size and appearance, is darker, with an irregular dark band and diffuse contours. Duvaucelia sp. it is very similar, with 4 white longitudinal dorsal stripes, no black stripes.

Abundance

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