Trapania bajamarensis

Trapania bajamarensis Moro & Ortea, 2015

Trapania bajamarensis @ Gran Canaria by Mario Matute

Description
With a maximum recorded size of about 12 mm, adult specimens have a brown or purplish body, with white areas mottled with yellow and scattered yellow spots. On the sides of the body the white areas tend to be rounded, with a golden spot in the centre. The head has an elongated white spot on its upper side, which extends between the rhinophores, with yellow spots inside. There may also be a similar white spot, irregularly shaped, on the upper part of the tip of the tail. Juveniles (less than 6 mm) lack the white spot on the head and tail, which are barely noticeable, and their body is purplish brown with whitish areas and small golden spots scattered throughout the surface, including the head, tail and propodial angles. The oral tentacles are whitish, with purplish and golden spots at their base, purplish with dark brown spots. The body appendages are purplish or dark brown, with brown and yellow spots and their upper edge spotted with white and yellow; the anterior ones are shorter than the length of the rhinophores in small specimens (5-6 mm), in which they look like clubs, and as long as them in larger specimens, to the point that when extended they exceed in length the posterior appendages that flank the gills, and they always arch backwards but only surround the rhinophores in larger specimens. Rhinophores with about 8 wide lamellae, the 4-5 lower ones brown and the upper ones, next to the mucron, whitish. Propodial angles triangular in shape, wide and long, purplish or purplish brown with a white tip. Gill formed by three bipinnate leaves, with a purplish or brown rachis and white pinnae. An irregular white spot runs along the back of the tail.

Biology
Specimens found from the intertidal zone to 42 metres deep. Sometimes found on Lobophora variegata algae or on cave walls. It is believed that they feed on entoprocts (very small organisms that grow on marine sponges) as other members of the genus.

Etymology

• Trapania. The original generic name of this species was Drepania, proposed by Lafont in 1874. Pruvot-Fol in 1931 proposed changing the generic name to Trapania to disambiguate it from Drepania Hübner, 1816 (a group of lepidoptera). Madame Pruvot-Fol does not indicate the origin of the name, but there are two theories: the first would be dedicated to the city of Trapani, the province capital of western Sicily; the second would be inspired on the original generic name Drepania, derived from the Greek “Drepane” which means “sickle” and presumably refers to the shape of the appendages located on the sides of the rhinophores and gills in this genus. Pruvot Fol would have chosen the new name on the basis that it has the same meaning, but not the same sound and thus avoid confusion.
• Bajamarensis, from the town of Bajamar, La Laguna, Tenerife (Canary Islands), name associated with the habitat where it was first collected, in the tidal zone during low tide.

Similar species
Due to the general colour of the body of T. bajamarensis, it cannot be confused with any other species known to date in the Atlantic-Mediterranean area (including the Canary Islands), but several authors have cited it as Trapania luquei (Moro, Ortea & Bacallado, 1997:119-122 and Debelius & Kuiper, 2007: p. 20).

Distribution
To date, all identified specimens have been found in the waters of the Canary Islands.

More pictures

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

• Red PROMAR
• Researchgate
• World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)

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