{"id":46158,"date":"2025-03-07T21:20:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T20:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opistobranquis.info\/?page_id=46158"},"modified":"2025-03-07T21:20:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T20:20:46","slug":"hermaea-cubana","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/opistobranquis.info\/en\/guia\/sacoglossa\/plakobranchoidea\/hermaea-cubana\/","title":{"rendered":"Hermaea cubana"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hermaea cubana<\/em> Caballer & Ortea, 2013<\/h3>\n

\"Hermaea<\/div>
Hermaea cubana @ Blue Heron Bridge, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA<\/em> by Diana912 @iNaturalist<\/center><\/span>

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WoRMS Taxonomic Information<\/h3>
Current accepted name: Hermaea cubana<\/em> Caballer & Ortea, 2013<\/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>Hermaeidae<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Genus<\/th>Hermaea<\/em><\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Species<\/th>Hermaea cubana<\/em> Caballer & Ortea, 2013<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table>

Classification provided by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). [744385<\/a>]<\/p><\/div>Description
\n<\/strong>Translucent body with scattered reddish or brownish red blotches. Snow-white granules all over integument, including head, rhinophores, cerata and cardiac area. Oral appendages absent. Rhinophores sharpen and directed downwards, not as long as the longest cerata. Eyes behind rhinophores base. Anterior border of foot orange tinged, bilobated and laterally angulated. Tail long and sharp, projected behind last pair of cerata. Cardiac area oval. Digestive gland reddish or brownish red; translucent during starvation; the branches in the dorsum join in the tail but not ahead of the cardiac area. Digestive gland inside cerata branching cross-like near the tip. Each side of the body with 9-10 cerata in a simple row. Cerata translucent, with snowwhite granules and red spots, club-shaped, wider in distal third, with 4 tubercles, one for each branch of digestive gland. Hermaphroditic gland white, visible through sole, with 8-10 ovotestis grouped from neck to mid-body. Anus in cardiac area. Gonopore on right side, laterally below eye.<\/p>\n

Biology
\n<\/strong>Lives in the intertidal zone on filamentous red algae on rocks, 0-8 m depth in open shores, not in eutrophic or brackish water.<\/p>\n

Similar species<\/strong>
\nThe way in which the digestive gland branches inside the cerata is, usually, a very useful characteristic to distinguish species of the genus Hermaea<\/em>. In both Hermaea cubana<\/em>\u00a0and H. cruciata<\/em>, the gland divides at the distal end of each cerata cross-like, thus, to clearly establish the differences between them, other characters must be used. Compared to H. cruciata<\/em>, H. cubana<\/em> is smaller sized and has different body color (H.cubana<\/em> is translucent with red spots while H.cruciata<\/em> is crystalline without any red pigment); H. cubana<\/em> has shorter rhinophores and lacks any oral appendages, and it has not an stalked anus, which is actually in the cardiac area. H. cruciata<\/em> has the eyes surrounded by clear areas; both branches of the digestive gland in the dorsum join ahead the cardiac area and there is one central cera in the connection area.<\/p>\n

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