Okenia hispanica Valdés & Ortea, 1995
WoRMS Taxonomic Information
Current classification
| Superdomain | Biota |
|---|---|
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Mollusca |
| Class | Gastropoda |
| Subclass | Heterobranchia |
| Infraclass | Euthyneura |
| Subterclass | Ringipleura |
| Superorder | Nudipleura |
| Order | Nudibranchia |
| Suborder | Doridida |
| Infraorder | Doridoidei |
| Superfamily | Onchidoridoidea |
| Family | Goniodorididae |
| Subfamily | Goniodoridinae |
| Genus | Okenia |
| Species | Okenia hispanica Á. Valdés & Ortea, 1995 |
Body high and relatively short, coloured hyaline white with several pink patches on the notum, the two largest ones located right behind each rhinophore and another large patch behind the gill, on the anal area. The dorsum is smooth. Head with a velum with four long yellow appendages with white tips. There are seven to nine short papillae on each side of the body, on the notum edge. Gill formed by five white leaves with yellow tips. The short oral tentacles are white. There is a yellow line on the white tail.
Biology
Very similar to Okenia amoenula, described by Bergh (1907) and Gosliner (1987) as crimson and yellow
in color, and MacNae (1957) as brick red and yellow, whereas Okenia hispanica is pink and yellow. Internally, both species can be distinguished by the structure of the genital system and their radular anatomy. It can also be confused with Okenia mediterranea, but this species has a row tubercles on the dorsum in adult specimens, and also differ on radular anatomy.
Etymology
- Okenia. Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Ludwig Gilbert Lorenz Oken, (1779-1851), German natural philosopher, who was editor of the natural history journal “Isis” and published the well-known “Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte” (Natural History Textbook). It’s nomenclature is not binominal, so the names in volume 3 (the zoology part) are unavailable for nomenclatural use.
- Hispanica. From Spain. Hispania is the latin name for Spain.
Distribution
This species was described based on a specimen collected in the Alboran Sea, on stones at 60 m depth.
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Abundance
| Western Mediterranean: | ★☆☆☆☆ |
| Eastern Mediterranean: | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
| Atlantic Ocean: | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
This chart displays the monthly observation probability for Okenia hispanica based on our own records.
More pictures
- We have no (more) pictures for Okenia hispanica
Bibliography
Further reading
Cite this article as:
Ballesteros, M., Madrenas, E. & Pontes, M. (2025) "Okenia hispanica" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 27/10/2019. Accessed: 03/09/2026. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=29262)
