Placida dendritica

Placida dendritica
A live individual of Placida dendritic a in situ, head end towards the left
illustration in A monograph of the British nudibranchiate Mollusca
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Heterobranchia
informal group Opisthobranchia
clade Sacoglossa
clade Plakobranchacea
Superfamily: Limapontioidea
Family: Limapontiidae
Genus: Placida
Species: P. dendritica
Binomial name
Placida dendritica
(Alder, J. & A. Hancock, 1843)
Synonyms[1]
  • Placida aoteana (Powell, 1937)
  • Hermaea dendritica Alder & Hancock, 1843

Placida dendritica is a species of minute sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Limapontiidae.[1]

Despite a superficial resemblance, this is not a nudibranch, it is a sacoglossan (i.e. it is in the order Sacoglossa).

Like most sacoglossans, Placida dendritica feeds on coenocytic green algae. It is able to retain the chloroplasts for a short period, however the ingested plastids are not functional, and do not provide nutritional benefit to the animal.[2]

Distribution

This species has been reported worldwide, but it is most likely a species complex.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 WoRMS : Placida dendritica accessed : 13 October 2010]
    • Goodnight, S. (2012). Field and Laboratory Observations of Two Gulf of Maine Sacoglossans. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH.
  2. http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2149
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Placida dendritica.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/6/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.