Ercolania coerulea

Ercolania coerulea (Trinchese, 1892)

Ercolania caerulea @ Porto Cesareo (Lecce), Northern Ionian Sea by Fabio Vitale

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Tectipleura  

 

Superorder

Sacoglossa  

 

Superfamily

Plakobranchoidea  

 

Family

Limapontiidae  

 

Genus

Ercolania  

 

Species

Ercolania coerulea  Trinchese, 1892

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 141560).
Synonyms

  • Ercolania costai Pruvot-Fol, 1951
  • Stiliger cricetus Er. Marcus & Ev. Marcus, 1970

Description
The average size of this species is about 14 mm but, generally, the specimens found are smaller. The overall body color is whitish or yellowish and the digestive gland, seen by transparency, is olive-green. This gland extends under all of the dorsal surface and the inside of the cerata, giving the animal an olive appearance. An opaque white pigment appears in the apex of the rhinophores and the pericardium. There are often numerous opaque white spots on the dorsum of the cerata that at the apex form two diverging white lines, like letter “V”. The apex of the cerata is bright blue, detail that gives its name to this species. The rhinophores are elongated and smooth, greenish-white in the base and at its end. The back is covered with a large number of cerata on both sides of the animal that remain tight together; cerata shape differs from fusiform with a pointed apex, to inflated with a rounded apex, depending on the movement state of the animal. The anal papilla is elongated and it is positioned on the pericardium. The genital openings are located just behind the right rinophore. The tail is pointed.

Biology
Ercolania coerulea is usually found on the cladophoral algae Vallonia utricularis that, according to various authors, it feeds. on. Its small size, globe shaped cerata and color makes the animal almost unnoticeable on the algae. The spawn of this species is a flattened round cord with very small white eggs, about 60-70 microns in diameter. The depth distribution ranges from the intertidal zone to a depth of 20 meters.

Etymology

  • Ercolania. Probably dedicated to Giovanni Batista Ercolani, Italian physicyst and founder of the veterinary sciences in his country.
  • Coerulea. From Latin “caeruleus”, of blue color.

Distribution
This species of sacoglosan was originally cited in the Mediterranean (Gulf of Naples) and has been quoted all around the western Mediterranean and the Adriatic, in the Canary Islands, Madeira and Azores, in the western Atlantic (Florida and West Indies), off the coast of Tanzania (Indian Ocean), and there are quotes from Hong Kong and Japan that require confirmation. In the Iberian Peninsula is mentioned only in the east coast. In the Catalan coast it has been observed rarely in the Costa Brava.

Known georeferenced records of the species: Ercolania coerulea
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 Ercolania coerulea based on our own records.

More pictures

Bibliography

    Ballesteros M. 2007. Lista actualizada de los opistobranquios (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) de las costas catalanas. Spira. 2(3):163–188.
    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2016. Actualización del catálogo de los moluscos opistobranquios (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) de las costas catalanas. Spira. 6:1–28.
    Ballesteros M, Madrenas E, Pontes M. 2023. OPK - Opistobranquis. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/.
    Bielecki S, Cavignaux G, Crouzet JM, et al. 2011. Des limaces de rêve.
    Caballer M, Ortea J, Rivero N, et al. 2015. The opisthobranch gastropods (Mollusca: Heterobranchia) from Venezuela: an annotated and illustrated inventory of species. Zootaxa 4034 (2): 201–256.
    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.
    Furfaro G, Vitale F, Licchelli C, et al. 2020. Two Seas for One Great Diversity: Checklist of the Marine Heterobranchia (Mollusca; Gastropoda) from the Salento Peninsula (South-East Italy). Diversity. 12(12):171.
    Goodheart JA, Ellingson RA, Vital XG, et al. 2016. Identification guide to the heterobranch sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Bocas del Toro, Panama. Marine Biodiversity Records. 9(1):56. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41200-016-0048-z.
    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.
    Moro L, Wirtz P, Ortea J, et al. 2000. Cuatro nuevas especies anfiatlánticas del Orden Sacoglossa (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia).
    Pontes M, Dacosta JM, Ollé i Callau A, et al. 2023. M@re Nostrum. Available from http://marenostrum.org/.
    Prkić J, Petani A, Iglić Ð, et al. 2018. Stražnjoškržnjaci Jadranskoga Mora: Slikovni Atlas i Popis Hrvatskih Vrsta / Opisthobranchs of the Adriatic Sea: Photographic Atlas and List of Croatian Species. Bibinje: Ronilaćki Klub Sveti Roko. 464 p. Available from https://opistobranquis.info/en/recursos/llibres-recomanats/opisthobranchs-of-the-adriatic-sea/.
    Pruvot-Fol A. 1951. Études des nudibranches de la Méditerranée. Archives de Zoologie Expérimentale et Générale. 88:1–80.
    Rosenberg G. 2009. Malacolog 4.1.1. A Database of Western Atlantic Marine Mollusca. The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA. Available from http://www.malacolog.org/.
    Rosenberg G, Moretzsohn F, García EF. 2009. Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico, Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.
    Rudman W.B. et al. 1998 2010. Ercolania coerulea accessed through: Sea Slug Forum on 2014-12-14. Available from http://seaslugforum.net/showall/ercocoer.
    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, Doneddu M. 2014. Nudibranchi del Mediterraneo. 2nd. Il Castello. 192 p.
    Trainito E, Trainito S. 2003. Mediterranean harlequins : a field guide to Mediterranean sea slugs. Olbia (SS), Italia: Taphros.
    Trinchese S. 1893. Nuovi ascoglossi del Golfo di Napoli. Rendiconto dell’Accademia delle Scienze Fisiche e Mathematiche, Napoli 33(6-7): 154-155.
    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:

Ballesteros, M., Madrenas, E. & Pontes, M. (2023) "Ercolania coerulea" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 14/05/2012. Accessed: 19/03/2024. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=276)

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