Acanthodoris pilosa

Acanthodoris pilosa (Abildgaard in Müller, 1789)

Acanthodoris pilosa by Klas Malmberg

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Ringipleura  

 

Superorder

Nudipleura  

 

Order

Nudibranchia  

 

Suborder

Doridina  

 

Infraorder

Doridoidei  

 

Superfamily

Onchidoridoidea  

 

Family

Onchidorididae  

 

Genus

Acanthodoris  

 

Species

Acanthodoris pilosa  (Abildgaard, 1789)

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 140627).
Synonyms

  • Acanthodoris citrina Verrill, 1879
  • Acanthodoris ornata Verrill, 1879
  • Acanthodoris pallida Bergh, 1905
  • Acanthodoris pilosa var. albescens Bergh, 1880
  • Acanthodoris pilosa var. pallida Bergh, 1905
  • Acanthodoris pilosa var. purpurea Bergh, 1880
  • Acanthodoris pilosa var. zealandiae Bergh, 1905
  • Acanthodoris subquadrata (Alder & Hancock, 1845)
  • Doris bifida Verrill, 1870
  • Doris flemingi Forbes, 1838
  • Doris flemingii Forbes, 1838
  • Doris laevis Gray M.E., 1850
  • Doris nigricans Fleming, 1820
  • Doris pilosa Abildgaard in Müller, 1789 (original)
  • Doris quadrangulata Jeffreys, 1869
  • Doris rocinela Leach, 1852
  • Doris similis Alder & Hancock, 1842
  • Doris stellata Gmelin, 1791
  • Doris sublaevis Thompson, 1840
  • Doris subquadrata Alder & Hancock, 1845

Description
Body usually measures about 40mm long, with a maximum recorded length of 55mm. The mantle completely covers the body, shaped like a dome. Body color is variable, and could be white, pale grey, yellow, brown or black. The light colored specimens, specially the juveniles, may have darker spots or freckles, and their internal organs can be seen by transparency. The mantle is heavily spiculated with long, thin, radially arranged spicules that make it soft to touch. It is also covered of soft, tall, conical tubercles that give it the characteristic pilose look, but these tubercles could be contracted making identification more difficult. The foot is translucent white, occasionally with dark spots on the sole, the upper side is freckled as the mantle. The foot is both anteriorly and posteriorly rounded, internal organs can be seen by transparency in the centre, and it protrudes beyond the mantle when the animal moves. The head has narrow oral veil that forms two blunt, rounded oral tentacles at the sides. It has long rhinophores, usually bent back and outwards, with a smooth stem and 10-24 lamellae (numbers increase with specimen size) in its distal portion, and a nipple on the tip. They emerge from low pallial sheaths with crenulated rims and share the same colour of the mantle, but the lamellae that could be frequently yellowish and occasionally bright orange. There are nine relatively big tripinnate gills of the same colour of the mantle, often with white axis and some white on the leaves, that are located around the anus, in the back of the dorsum.

Biology
It is found from the surface down to 170 m depth. It usually feeds on encrusting polyzoans of the genus Alcyonidium, also found on Flustrellidra hispida. It reaches maturity at 8mm long (Miller, 1958), and the spawn is a convoluted ribbon of white eggs of 64-76 microns in diameter, forming a two turns spiral, attached to the substrate by one edge. The gill leaves and could be retracted independently under the mantle if the animal is disturbed.

Etymology

  • Acanthodoris. From Greek “akantha”, thorn, spine + “Doris”, a sea nymph in Greek mythology, wife of Nereus, nymph of the waters and mother of Nereids.
  • Pilosa. From Latin “pilosus”, hairy, shaggy, covered with hair.

Distribution
There are reports from the Arctic Ocean (Faeroes and Iceland) down to Morocco, it is common around the British Islands and in both sides of the North Sea. It is present in both Northern American shores, from Greenland to Virginia in the Atlantic, and from Alaska to Vancouver in the Pacific. Acanthodoris pilosa is considered “dubia” in the Mediterranean. Considered common in Palermo, Italy by Philippi (1836) (as Doris stellata Gmelin in Linnaeus, 1791 fide Thompson and Brown, 1984), in fact this species has only been reported in the Mediterranean by Forbes (1844) for the Aegean Sea (Cattaneo-Vietti & Chemello, 1987).

Known georeferenced records of the species: Acanthodoris pilosa
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 Acanthodoris pilosa based on our own records.

More pictures

Bibliography

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Further reading

Cite this article as:

Pontes, Miquel, Manuel Ballesteros, Enric Madrenas (2023) "Acanthodoris pilosa" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 19/09/2014. Accessed: 19/03/2024. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=14606)

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