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Okenia leachii

Okenia leachii (Alder & Hancock, 1854)

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

WoRMS Taxonomic Information

Current accepted name: Okenia leachii (Alder & Hancock, 1854)

Current classification

SuperdomainBiota
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumMollusca
ClassGastropoda
SubclassHeterobranchia
InfraclassEuthyneura
SubterclassRingipleura
SuperorderNudipleura
OrderNudibranchia
SuborderDoridina
InfraorderDoridoidei
SuperfamilyOnchidoridoidea
FamilyGoniodorididae
SubfamilyGoniodoridinae
GenusOkenia
SpeciesOkenia leachii (Alder & Hancock, 1854)

Classification provided by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). [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

Loading records…
[referencies]

Abundance

Northeastern Atlantic
17
Western Mediterranean
0
Eastern Mediterranean
0
No records Occasional Infrequent Frequent Very frequent

Relative abundance of Okenia leachii among the different marine basins, based on our own records

This chart displays the monthly observation probability for Okenia leachii based on our own records.

This chart displays the number of annual observations of Okenia leachii over the last 50 years, based on our own records. The trend should be interpreted with caution, as it may be biased by the growing popularity of this animal group.

More pictures

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

Bibliography

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    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. (2025) "Okenia leachii" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 19/10/2014. Accessed: 04/11/2026. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=16293)