| Paedoclione doliiformis | |
|---|---|
| Drawing of ventral view of live Paedoclione doliiformis. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura |
| Superfamily: | Clionoidea |
| Family: | Clionidae |
| Genus: | Paedoclione Danforth, 1907[1] |
| Species: | P. doliiformis |
| Binomial name | |
| Paedoclione doliiformis Danforth, 1907[1] |
|
Paedoclione doliiformis is a species of sea angel, small floating sea slug, pelagic marine gastropod mollusk in the family Clionidae.
Paedoclione doliiformis is the only species in the genus Paedoclione.[2]
The generic name makes a nod to the paedomorphic habit of this genus, which retains many larval features throughout its life.[3]
Paedoclione doliiformis has been originally described by Charles Haskell Danforth in 1907.[1] It has not been collected by zoologists for next 61 years.[4] Other next collection is from 1968 by Lalli (1972).[4]
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The type locality of Paedoclione doliiformis is Casco Bay, Portland, Maine.[1]
Distribution of include St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia and Gulf of Maine[3][4] and possibly elsewhere.
Paedoclione doliiformis has juvenile (larval) physical characteristics for the whole of its life.[4] That is called neoteny (a kind of pedomorphosis).[4]
The body length is up to 1.5 mm.[2] Paedoclione doliiformis has no shell.[2]
It are gelatinous, mostly transparent pteropod, and it only have shell in their embryonic stage.
The orange visceral sac is confined to the anterior part.
Mating is carried out ventrally for mutual fertilization. The following spring, this results in a free-floating, gelatinous egg mass.
Eggs hatch after three days, and the shell is retained until the 11th day.[3]
Paedoclione doliiformis feeds exclusively on Limacina helicina and on Limacina retroversa but solely on juveniles with shells smaller than 1 mm.[5] Its abundance is closely linked to that of its prey.[3]