Doto coronata
| Doto coronata | |
|---|---|
 | |
| The nudibranch Doto coronata, Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire, Wales. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura |
| Superfamily: | Tritonioidea |
| Family: | Dotidae |
| Genus: | Doto |
| Species: | D. coronata |
| Binomial name | |
| Doto coronata (Gmelin, 1791) | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Doto coronata, is a species of small sea slug or nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Dotidae. [1] It is the type species of the genus Doto.
Distribution
The type locality for this species is on the Dutch coast. It has been reported elsewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean (European waters, Canada, Gulf of Maine) and the Mediterranean Sea (Greece) but many records are likely to be of sibling species.[2] It has been erroneously reported from around the South African coast where it is found from the Atlantic coast to Knysna.[3] It is known from the intertidal to more than 25 m.
Description
This species is a small (up to 15 mm) nudibranch, with grape-bunch-like clusters of cerata extending in pairs down the body. In all Doto the rhinophores extend from cup-like sheaths. Doto coronata is translucent white in colour with mottling of dark red on the back and sides of the body. The ceratal tubercles are tipped with round red spots. There is a patch of dark red pigment on the inner faces of the cerata.[2]
Doto coronata sensu lato
Before 1976 a number of species were called by the name Doto coronata and the process of splitting this complex into species was started by Henning Lemche.[4] Species with translucent white bodies and red or black spots on the cerata which were formerly identified as Doto coronata include:
- Doto dunnei Lemche, 1976
- Doto eireana Lemche, 1976
- Doto hydrallmaniae Morrow, Thorpe and Picton, 1992
- Doto koenneckeri Lemche, 1976
- Doto maculata (Montagu, 1804)
- Doto millbayana Lemche, 1976
- Doto onusta Hesse, 1872
- Doto sarsiae Morrow, Thorpe and Picton, 1992
Ecology
Doto coronata feeds on hydroids, especially Obelia spp. Campanulariidae and Sertularia spp. Sertulariidae. Its egg mass is a white ribbon laid in a zigzag pattern, usually on or at the base of the hydroids it is feeding on. It is a host of the ectoparasitic crustaceans Doridicola agilis Leydig, 1853 and Splanchnotrophus brevipes Hancock & Norman, 1863 and the endoparasitic crustacean Lomanoticola brevipes (Hancock & Norman, 1863)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gofas, S. (2011). Doto coronata (Gmelin, 1791). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=139631 on 2012-05-17
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Picton, B.E. & Morrow, C.C., 2010. [In] Encyclopedia of Marine Life of Britain and Ireland
- ↑ GOSLINER, T.M. 1987. Nudibranchs of Southern Africa ISBN 0-930118-13-8
- ↑ Lemche, H. M. 1976. New British species of Doto Oken, 1815 (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 56(3):691-706, pls. 1-3.
- Backeljau, T. (1986). Lijst van de recente mariene mollusken van België [List of the recent marine molluscs of Belgium]. Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen: Brussels, Belgium. 106 pp.