{"id":2086,"date":"2012-07-17T12:21:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T10:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opistobranquis.info\/placida-verticillataplacida-verticillataplacida-verticillata"},"modified":"2024-08-16T07:58:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T05:58:54","slug":"placida-verticilata","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/opistobranquis.info\/en\/guia\/sacoglossa\/plakobranchoidea\/placida-verticilata\/","title":{"rendered":"Placida verticilata"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Placida verticilata<\/em>\u00a0Ortea, 1982<\/h3>\n

\"Placida<\/div>
Placida verticilata @ L'Escala by Enric Madrenas<\/em> by Enric Madrenas<\/center><\/span>

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WoRMS Taxonomic Information<\/h3>
Current accepted name: Placida verticilata<\/em> Ortea, 1982<\/strong><\/div>

Current classification<\/h4>
Superdomain<\/th>Biota<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Kingdom<\/th>Animalia<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Phylum<\/th>Mollusca<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Class<\/th>Gastropoda<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Subclass<\/th>Heterobranchia<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Infraclass<\/th>Euthyneura<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Subterclass<\/th>Tectipleura<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Superorder<\/th>Sacoglossa<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Superfamily<\/th>Plakobranchoidea<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Family<\/th>Limapontiidae<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Genus<\/th>Placida<\/em><\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Species<\/th>Placida verticilata<\/em> Ortea, 1982<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table>

Classification provided by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). [141568<\/a>]<\/p><\/div>Description
\n<\/strong>The specimens of this species tend to measure between 7 and 10 mm in length. The background body color is whitish but it is masked by the greatly developed diverticulae of the digestive gland, branching throughout the body (back, head, body sides, rhinophores, anal papilla, cerata and foot) and, being filled with chloroplasts, provide an olive green coloration to the entire animal. The rhinophores are thin and long and they are grooved along\u00a0their front side. The eyes are inconspicuous and are located right behind the base of rhinophores. The anal papilla is tubular, long and narrow and is located ahead of\u00a0the heart area, right below\u00a0the first dorsal cerata. The digestive gland branches extraordinarily throughout the body sometimes not allowing to distinguish the main hepatic ducts. There are about 30-40 cerata on the back, they are elongated and fusiform and have\u00a0a rounded tip; within each cerata there is a thick olive green hepatic duct that alternately grows\u00a0rounded short ramifications of the same colour to one side and another. The foot is whitish and rounded ahead, where it forms two rounded lateral lobes.<\/p>\n

Morphological note: P. verticilata<\/em> is very similar to P. dendritica<\/em>, there are distinguished by longer and simply grooved rhinophores -they are auriculate and rolled in P. dendritica<\/em>– and the ramifications of the digestive gland within the cerata, in P. verticilata<\/em> they are simple and convoluted, while in P. dendritica<\/em>\u00a0they are complexely branched.<\/p>\n

Biology
\n<\/strong>This kind of sacoglossan lives, as the\u00a0similar species P. dendritica<\/em> on the thalli of the branched chlorophycean algae of the genus Codium<\/em>, on which it feeds and with which it keeps a perfect color mimicry. As in other sacoglossans, it\u00a0does not digest the ingested chloroplasts from the algae but they are accumulated instead in the complex ramifications of the digestive gland. These chloroplasts are kept\u00a0functional for several weeks, and as they perform photosynthesis, they synthesize organic compounds, to the\u00a0advantage of the sacoglossan. The spawn consists of a tightly wrapped flattened ribbon\u00a0forming a flat spiral; Eggs are white and they are enclosed in nearly spherical egg capsules of about 140 microns in diameter (Ortea, 1981; Garcia-Gomez, 1987).<\/p>\n

Etymology<\/strong><\/p>\n