Tambja marbellensis

Tambja marbellensis  Schick & Cervera, 1998

Tambja marbellensis @ Granada by Enric Madrenas

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Ringipleura  

 

Superorder

Nudipleura  

 

Order

Nudibranchia  

 

Suborder

Doridina  

 

Infraorder

Doridoidei  

 

Superfamily

Polyceroidea  

 

Family

Polyceridae  

 

Subfamily

Nembrothinae  

 

Genus

Tambja  

 

Species

Tambja marbellensis  Schick & Cervera, 1998

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 140051).
Taxonomic note: In the molecular analysis performed by Pola et al. (2014) Tambja marbellensis forms a very well supported clade that includes T. fantasmalis, T. crioula and T. simplex, with T. marbellensis as a sister species of the rest.

Description
Limaciform shaped body up to 45 mm in length (Pola et al., 2014) with a widened head. The color of the adult specimens is grayish-blue (or greenish) very dark, almost black, although the juveniles are colored light green. It has a yellow dorsal longitudinal band that begins between the rhinophores and reaches the gill crown on the back, following a dorsal median crest (L. Sánchez-Tocino, 2016). Behind each rhinophore begins a yellow stripe that ends in the gills, only visible in the adult specimens. Two other yellow stripes are born ahead of ​​the gills and run parallel to the edge of the notum, ending in the post-gill area. The animal’s back is smooth, with some scattered spicules, and has a smooth, yellow border with a darker central line. The dorsum, the sides of the body and the pointed tail have a series of yellow stripes of different length, which increase in number and complication with the age of the animal but which share the design of the darker central line. In adult specimens rhinophores and gills are dark, almost black, whereas in juvenile specimens these organs are dark blue (L. Sánchez-Tocino, 2016). The foot has in its anterior part a series of small and rounded oral glands, and is bordered by a yellow band that joins with the edge of the mantle with a line of the same color that reaches to the tail, which protrudes the notum . The rhinophores are retractile, lamellated (with about 25 lamellas each) and have a conical shaped apex. Around the base there are smooth rhinophoric sheaths, colored dark blue with a yellow border. It has two short and dorsoventrally flattened oral tentacles. Among the rhinophores and oral tentacles, on each side of the body, there are lamellar structures, also present in other species of the genus (Yonow 1994; Pola et al., 2005; Pola et al., 2006). The gills are made of 5 dark blue tripinnate leaves that have the yellow rachis outside, are not retractable and are located at the back of the notum, surrounding the anal papilla. The three most central gill leaves are more developed than the lateral ones.

Biology
It lives in rocky bottoms, the juveniles are found below stones, on bryozoans Sessibugula barrosoi of which they probably feed, at least during its juvenile stage. The specimens have been observed between 3 and 20 meters deep and it is considered a rare species. Due to its characteristics, habitat and distribution it may be confused with the species Tambja ceutae, but Tambja marbellensis lacks the characteristic conical papillae that border the mantle and tail of T. ceutae and has a brown streak in the middle of all of the body yellow lines, a trait absent in T. ceutae. In addition, T. ceutae has the inner rachis of the gill colored in yellow, as well as two large dark gray spots located behind the rhinophores.

Etymology

  • Marbellensis. Refers to Marbella, the type locality of this species.

Distribution
Tambja marbellensis has been cited several times from southern Spain since its original description (Schick & Cervera 1998; Schick 1998; Ocaña et al. 2000, 2004; Sánchez-Tocino et al. 2000; García-Gómez 2002) and also from Portugal (Malaquias & Morenito 2000; Calado and Silva, 2012; Pola et al. 2014).

Known georeferenced records of the species: Tambja marbellensis
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 Tambja marbellensis based on our own records.

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More pictures

Bibliography

    Aguado F, López González S. 2015. Moluscos Nudibranquios de la Costa Tropical. Asociación Buxus & Ayuntamiento de Motril.
    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2023. OPK - Opistobranquis. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/.
    Ballesteros M, Pontes M, Madrenas E. 2019. Els nudibranquis del mar català. Figueres: Brau Edicions. 192 p.
    Cervera JL, García JC, Cattaneo-Vietti R. 2000. Additional data on the phanerobranch dorid Tambja simplex Ortea & Moro, 1998 (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia: Polyceratidae). Veliger 43(2): 190-194.
    Cervera JL, Calado G, Gavaia C, et al. 2004. An annotated and updated checklist of the opisthobranchs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Spain and Portugal (including islands and archipelagos). Boletín Instituto Español de Oceanografía, 20 (1-4): 1-111. L.
    Debelius H, Kuiter RH. 2007. Nudibranchs of the world. Frankfurt: IKAN- Unterwasserarchiv. 360 pp. p.
    Domínguez M, Pola M, Ramón M. 2015. A new species of Tambja (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia) from the Mediterranean Sea: description of the first species of the genus from the Balearic Islands and Malta. Helgoland Marine Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10152-015-0429-4.
    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.
    García-Gómez JC. 2002. Paradigmas de una fauna insólita; Los moluscos opistobranquios del estrecho de Gibraltar (Serie Ciencias) 20: 397 pp. Instituto de Estudios Gibraltareños. Algeciras, Cádiz, Spain.
    Long SJ. 2006. Bibliography of Opisthobranchia 1554-2000. Bayside Books & Press, Tustin, CA, U.S.A. 672p.
    Malaquias MAE, Morenito PM. 2000. The Opisthobranchs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of the Coastal Lagoon “Ria Formosa” in Southern Portugal. Bollettino Malacologico 36 (5-8): 117-124.
    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.
    Ocaña A, Sánchez-Tocino L, García FJ. 2004. Ontogenetic radular variation in species of Tambja Burn, 1962 (Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia, Polyceratidae) from the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Scientia Marina 68 (2): 205-210.
    Ocaña Martín A, Sánchez Tocino L, López González S, et al. 2000. Guía submarina de invertebrados no artrópodos. Granada: Comares.
    Ortea JA, Moro L. 1999. Descripción de tres Moluscos Opistobranquios nuevos de las islas de Cabo Verde. Three new Opisthobranch Mollusc from Cape Verd Islands. Avicennia 8/9:149-154, pl 1; fig 1.
    Ortea J, Moro L. 1998. Descripción de tres Moluscos Opistobranquios nuevos de las islas de Cabo Verde. Avicennia 8-9: 149-154.
    Pola M, Padula V, Gosliner TM, et al. 2014. Going further on an intricate and challenging group of nudibranchs: description of five novel species and a more complete molecular phylogeny of the subfamily Nembrothinae (Polyceridae). Cladistics. 1-28.
    Pola M, Cervera JL, Gosliner JL. 2007. Phylogenetic relationships of Nembrothinae  (Mollusca: Doridacea: Polyceridae) inferred from morphology and mitochondrial DNA. Molecular  Phylogenetics & Evolution 43(3):726-742.
    Pola M, Cervera JL, Gosliner TM. 2006. Taxonomic revision and phylogenetic analysis of the genus Tambja Burn, 1962 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia, Polyceridae). Zoologica Scripta 35(5):491-530. Available from http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00241.x.
    Pola M, Cervera JL, Gosliner TM. 2005. Four new species of Tambja Burn, 1962 (Nudibranchia: Polyceridae) from the Indo-Pacific. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 71(3): 257-267.
    Pola M, Cervera JL, Gosliner TM. 2005. A new species of Tambja (Nudibranchia: Polyceridae: Nembrothinae) from southern Brazil. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 85(4): 979-984.
    Rudman W.B. et al. 1998 2010. Tambja marbellensis accessed through: Sea Slug Forum on 2014-12-14. Available from http://seaslugforum.net/showall/tambmarb.
    Sánchez Tocino L. 2001. Tambja marbellensis accessed through: Opistobranquios de la Costa de Granada on 2014-12-14. Available from http://www.ugr.es/~lstocino/tmabellensis.htm.
    Sánchez Tocino L, Ocaña A, García FJ. 2000b. The genus Tambja Burn, 1962 (Gastroposa, Opisthobranchia) in the Mediterranean Sea with remarks on the intraspecific variability. Argonauta 14 (1): 67-75.
    Sánchez Tocino L, Ocaña A, García FJ. 2000. Contribución al conocimiento de los moluscos opistobranquios de la costa de Granada (sureste de la Península Ibérica). Iberus 18(1):1-14.
    Sánchez-Tocino L. 2018. El Litoral de Granada - Opistobranquios. El Litoral de Granada. Available from https://litoraldegranada.ugr.es/el-litoral/el-litoral-sumergido/fauna/moluscos/gasteropodos/opistobranquios/.
    Schick KL, Cervera JL. 1998. Description of a new species in the genus Tambja Burn, 1962 (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia: Polyceridae) from Southern Spain. The Veliger 41(4): 344-350.
    Templado J, Villanueva R. 2010. Checklist of Phylum Mollusca. pp. 148-198 In Coll, M., et al., 2010. The biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea: estimates, patterns, and threats. PLoS ONE 5(8):36pp.
    Trainito E. 2005. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo : guida al riconoscimento dei molluschi opistobranchi. Trezzano sul Naviglio (Milano): Il Castello.
    Trainito E, Doneddu M. 2014. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo. 2nd. Il Castello. 192 p.
    Willan RC, Chang Y-W. 2017. Description of three new species of Tambja (Gastropoda, Nudibranchia, Polyceridae) from the western Pacific Ocean reveals morphological characters with taxonomic and phylogenetic significance for traditional Polyceridae and related “phaneorobranch” nudibranchs. Basteria. 81(1-3): 1-23.
    Wirtz P, Debelius H. 2003. Mediterranean and Atlantic invertebrate guide. Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks.
    WoRMS Editorial Board. 2023. 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:

Pontes, Miquel, Manuel Ballesteros, Enric Madrenas (2023) "Tambja marbellensis" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 15/10/2013. Accessed: 19/03/2024. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=11384)

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