Home Guide to Opisthobranchs Nudibranchia Cladobranchia Unassigned Cladobranchia Phylliroe lichtensteinii

Phylliroe lichtensteinii

Phylliroe lichtensteinii  Eschscholtz, 1825

Phylliroe lichtensteinii 3-01-2017 by Linda Ianniello

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Ringipleura  

 

Superorder

Nudipleura  

 

Order

Nudibranchia  

 

Suborder

Cladobranchia  

 

Superfamily

Dendronotoidea  

 

Family

Phylliroidae  

 

Genus

Phylliroe  

 

Species

Phylliroe lichtensteinii  Eschscholtz, 1825

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 536862).
Synonyms

  • Phylliroe amboinensis Quoy & Gaimard, 1832
  • Phylliroe atlantica Bergh, 1871
  • Phylliroe lichtensteini Eschscholtz, 1825
  • Phylliroe rubra Quoy & Gaimard, 1832
  • Phylliroe pelagica H. Adams & A. Adams, 1858
  • Phylliroe roseum D’Orbigny, 1836

Description
Fish-like, laterally flattened body, up to about 55 mm in length, without papillae and completely transparent. The tail is short, less than 16% of the body length. The foot is reduced to a pedal gland not disrupting the body outline. The head, before the relatively small rhinophores, is directed downwards, with a terminal mouth. The anus is located on the right lateral side in the centre of the body. The digestive gland and other organs are visible through the skin by transparency. The digestive gland has no constriction in the middle, which is characteristic of Phylliroe lichtensteinii. Literature is pretty confuse with the species of Phylliroe, species determination traits range from the presence of a restriction in the digestive gland to the number of gonads, and then from the number of gonads: P.bucephala is said to have 2 gonads, while P.lichtensteinii is said to have from 3 to 5, but the fact is these beautiful species have been neglected in many studies and identification is not clear.

Biology
This species is hermaphroditic.  The juveniles have been reported to parasitise the medusae of the cnidarian Zanclea, attaching to the inside of the bell, on which they feed and remain until adulthood. In adulthood its diet is no longer restricted to Zanclea, although observations of feeding behaviour are sparse. Phylliroe has been seen approaching a swarm of the larvacean Oikopleura albicans from below, grabbing a specimen with its paired denticulate jaws and swallowing it in half a minute. Adults have also been observed to prey on the medusa Aequorea. This is a pelagic species that is highly bioluminescent and emits flashes of light when disturbed. Despite it seems to prefer the upper water layers, vertical distribution for this species suggests that it lives at a depth of about 60 meters (Fernández-Álamo, 1997) and, at night, participates in a vertical migration towards the surface. It does not like light, so when it is discovered by a diver, begins to swim towards deep water (L.Ianello, pers.comm.).

Etymology

  • Phylliroe, from Greek “phyllon”, leaf + “roe”, water current, or water flow.
  • Lichtensteinii, honors Martin Heinrich Lichtenstein, German physician, explorer and naturalist who, in 1844, published descriptions of animals collected around Australia. He worked at the Zoological Institute in Berlin.

Distribution
This species is known from the warm waters of Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, also in the Mediterranean.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Phylliroe lichtensteinii
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 Phylliroe lichtensteinii based on our own records.

Videos

 

More pictures

Phylliroe lichtensteinii, pelagic nudibranch @ Blackwater, Roatan, Honduras in (Nudibase, Facebook) by Mauricio Riquelme (Aqualife Photography)
Phylliroe lichtensteinii 3-01-2017 by Linda Ianello
Phylliroe lichtensteinii 3-01-2017 by Linda Ianello
Phylliroe lichtensteinii 22-08-2015 by Linda Ianello
Phylliroe lichtensteinii 28-04-2016 by Linda Ianello
Phylliroe lichtensteinii 28-04-2016 by Linda Ianello
Phylliroe lichtensteinii by Judy Townsend
Phylliroe lichtensteinii 3-01-2017

Bibliography

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Further reading

Cite this article as:

Pontes, Miquel, Manuel Ballesteros, Enric Madrenas (2023) "Phylliroe lichtensteinii" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 24/04/2016. Accessed: 19/04/2024. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=21645)

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