Onchidella patelloides

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Onchidella patelloides
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Systellommatophora
Family: Onchidiidae
Genus: Onchidella
Species: O. patelloides
Binomial name
Onchidella patelloides
(Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)
Synonyms

Onchidium patelloides
Quoy & Gaimard, 1832

Onchidella patelloides is a species of small, air-breathing sea slug, a shell-less marine pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Onchidiidae.

For more information on this unusual family of air-breathing sea slugs see Onchidiidae.

Contents

[edit] Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand including the Chatham Islands.

[edit] Habitat

This sea slug is found in the mid intertidal zone.

[edit] Description

This species, along with all others in the family, does not have a shell, and has the general appearance of a limpet. Its dorsal surface is granular, with large papillae.

Coloration is yellowish-green to brown, with patches of dark grey.

Length is up to 26 mm, and width is up to 17 mm.

[edit] Life habits

Onchidella patelloides moves across damp rocks very swiftly (for a gastropod), feeding on the surface film of minute plants and debris which it picks up with its hard radula.

[edit] References