Caliphylla mediterranea A. Costa, 1867

Salvador, Xavier, Fernández-Vilert, Robert & Moles, Juan, 2022, Sea slug night fever: 39 new records of elusive heterobranchs in the western Mediterranean (Mollusca: Gastropoda), Journal of Natural History 56 (5 - 8), pp. 265-310 : 294-295

Caliphylla mediterranea A. Costa, 1867

( Figure 5 (g))

Material examined

Cala d’Aiguafreda, Begur ( Spain), 41°57 ʹ 49”N, 3°13 ʹ 41”E, 5 September 2017, 0.8 m depth, 2 spcs, adults, L = 17 mm; CalaVentosa, Sant Feliu de Guíxols ( Spain), 41°47 ʹ 5”N, 3°2 ʹ 52”E, 13 September 2017, 1.5 m depth, 1 spc., adult, L = 20 mm; Cala Maset caves, Sant Feliu de Guíxols ( Spain), 41°47 ʹ 10”N, 3°2 ʹ 44”E, 5 December 2017, 0.7 m depth, 9 spcs, adults and egg masses, L = 5–40 mm; Fòrum pools, Barcelona ( Spain), 41°24 ʹ 34.5”N, 2°13 ʹ 36.8”E, 5 December 2017, 0.7 m depth, 8 spcs, juveniles, adults and egg masses, L = 5–40 mm; Cova de l’infern ( Spain), 42°19 ʹ 2.75”N, 3°19 ʹ 12.74”E, 18 September 2018, 1.3 m depth, 1 spc., adult and egg masses, L = 40 mm; Punta de la Mona, Andalucía ( Spain), 36°43 ʹ 12.9”N 3°43 ʹ 43.1”W, 20 September 2020, 1–5 m depth,>40 spcs, juveniles, adults and egg masses, L = 4–30 mm .

External morphology

Body elongate, thick, background colour light green with small brown and white dots along body, and a white pigmented area between eyes. Cerata numerous, flat; transparent with green lines running towards apex. Rhinophores long, folded, divided in ‘Y’ shape, tips divided into two unequal parts.

Ecology

Specimens found at night and during the day on the green algae Bryopsis duplex (De Notaris, 1844) and Cladophora prolifera laying egg masses. At night slugs actively crawled and laid egg masses, while by day they hid among the algae.

Distribution

Gulf of Mexico (BioGoMx 2021); Brazil (GBIF.org 2021); Gibraltar ( García-Gómez 2002); Atlantic Spanish coast: Canary Islands ( Ortea and Bacallado 1981; Ortea et al. 1999, 2001; Moro et al. 2003); Mediterranean Spanish coast, Andalucía ( Luque 1983; García Raso et al. 1992; Ocaña et al. 2000), Levantine coast ( Templado et al. 1987, 2002), Balearic Islands (GROC 2009–2021), Catalonia (this study).

Remarks

This species is distinguished from similar ones like C. viridis ( Deshayes, 1857) (formerly Polybranchia viridis ) by the presence of a ramified digestive gland in the cerata (see Poybranchia viridis in Rudman 2021).

Genus Cyerce Bergh, 1870

Figures

Figure 5. Photographs of live Pteropoda species: (a) Creseis virgula. (b) Hyalocylis striata. (c) Peracle reticulata. (d) Pneumodermopsis canephora. Runcinida: (e) Runcina ornata. Sacoglossa: (f) Aplysiopsis elegans. (g) Caliphylla mediterránea. (h) Cyerce graeca.