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Okenia leachii

Okenia leachii (Alder & Hancock, 1854)

Okenia Leachii Shiant Islands, NW Scotland. 1988. by Bernard Picton

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

Goniodorididae  

 

Subfamily

Goniodoridinae  

 

Genus

Okenia  

 

Species

Okenia leachii  (Alder & Hancock, 1854)

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 140039).
Synonyms

  • Idalia leachii Alder & Hancock, 1854

Description

Biology

Etymology

  • Okenia. In honor of Prof. Dr. Ludwig Gilbert Lorenz Oken, (1779-1851), German natural philosopher, editor of the magazine “Isis” and publisher of the book “Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte”.
  • Leachii. In honor to Dr. William Elford Leach, (1791-1836), “a naturalist of most indomitable enthusiasm and very extraordinary acquirements”. English zoologist, born in Plymouth, he studied medicine at London and at Edinburgh, where he achieved his MD in 1812, but in 1813 he became employed as “assistant librarian” (keeper) at the British Museum. Leach was among the first in Britain to take contacts with French zoologists after the Napoleon era and corresponded with de Blainville, Savigny in France and Bonelli in Italy. After his first visit to Paris in 1815 he also met Cuvier and de Lamarck and also becoming a friend of other professors there. In the 1818 Leach met de Ferussac jr. and his friend d’Orbigny and was followed to England by Latreille and Cuvier and his family.

Distribution

Known georeferenced records of the species: Okenia leachii
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 Okenia leachii based on our own records.

More pictures

Okenia leachii With spawn, not confirmed to belong to this species. Shiant Islands, NW Scotland. 1988. – Photograph ©Bernard Picton

Bibliography

    Alder J, Hancock A. 1854. A monograph of the British nudibranchiate Mollusca: with figures of all the species. Ray Society, London. Available from www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/131598#page/200/mode/1up.
    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2025. OPK - Opistobranquis. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/.
    Garcia FJ, Bertsch H. 2009. Diversity and distribution of the Gastropoda Opisthobranchia from the Atlantic Ocean: A global biogeographic approach. Scientia Marina. 73(1):153–160. https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.2009.73n1153.
    Høisæter T. 1986. An annotated check-list of marine molluscs of the Norwegian coast and adjacent waters. Sarsia 71(2):73-175.
    Just H, Edmuns M. 1985. North atlantic nudibranchs (Mollusca) seen by Henning Lemche. Ophelia supplement 2: 1-150.
    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.
    McKay DW, Smith SM. 1979. Marine Mollusca of east Scotland. Royal  Scottish Museum. 185 pp. p.
    McMillan NF. 1968. British shells, xii + 196 pp. Frederick Warne & Co., Ltd.
    Picton BE, Morrow C. 1994. Okenia leachii accessed through: Nudibranchs of the British Isles on 2014-12-14. Available from http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/species.asp?item=W13030#.
    Picton BE, Morrow C. 1994. A Field guide to the Nudibranchs of the British Isles. London: Immel Publishing Ltd. London: 143 pp.
    Pola M, Paz-Sedano S, Macali A, et al. 2019. What is really out there? Review of the genus Okenia Menke, 1830 (Nudibranchia: Goniodorididae) in the Mediterranean Sea with description of two new species. PLoS ONE 14(5): e0215037. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215037.
    Pruvot-Fol A. 1954. Mollusques opisthobranches. Paris, France: Paul Lechevalier (Faune de France). 460 p.
    Rudman WB. 2004. Further species of the opisthobranch genus Okenia (Nudibranchia: Goniodorididae) from the Indo-West Pacific. Zootaxa 695 : 1-70.
    Sabelli B, Gianuzzi-Savelli R, Bedulli D. 1990. Catalogo annotato dei Molluschi marini del Mediterraneo. Libreria Naturalistica Bolognese. Bologna, Italy: 348 pp.
    Step E. 1945. Shell life. An introduction to the British Mollusca, 443 pp, 32 pls. Frederick Warne & Co., Ltd., London.
    Thompson TE. 1964. Grazing and the life cycles of British nudibranchs, pp 275-297, In: D. J. Crisp (ed ), Grazing in terrestrial and marine environments. British Ecological Society Symposium No. 4, 322 pp Blackwell, Oxford.
    Trainito E, Doneddu M. 2014. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo. 2nd. Il Castello. 192 p.
    White KM. 1938. The nomenclature of British nudibranch Mollusca by Alder and Hancock and by Eliot correlated with that of British Marine Mollusca by Winckworth. Journal of Conchology 21(1):14-19.
    Wilson S. 2005. Production of the list of species and habitats considered to be of principal importance  for the purpose of conservation of biodiversity in Scotland. The Scottish Biodiversity List, Part 2  Technical Report. 116 pp p. Available from http://www.biodiversityscotland.gov.uk/library/SECTION%202%20report%20FINAL%20as%20issued%2029.11.05% 20_no%20border_.pdf.
    Winckworth R. 1932. The British marine Mollusca. Journal of Conchology 19(7):211-252.
    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:

Ballesteros, M., Madrenas, E. & Pontes, M. (2012-2025) "Okenia leachii" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 19/10/2014. Accessed: 03/02/2025. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=16293)