Phyllodesmium hyalinum

Phyllodesmium hyalinum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Heterobranchia

clade Euthyneura
clade Nudipleura
clade Nudibranchia
clade Dexiarchia
clade Cladobranchia
clade Aeolidida

Superfamily: Aeolidioidea
Family: Facelinidae
Subfamily: Favorininae
Genus: Phyllodesmium
Species: P. hyalinum
Binomial name
Phyllodesmium hyalinum
Ehrenberg, 1831
Synonyms[1]
  • Phyllodesmium xeniae Gohar & Aboul-Ela, 1957
  • Favorinus horridus brevitentaculatus Engel & van Eeken, 1962

Phyllodesmium hyalinum is a species of sea slug, an aolid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Facelinidae.

Phyllodesmium hyalinum is the type species of the genus Phyllodesmium.[2]

Distribution

The distribution of Phyllodesmium hyalinum includes Pacific, Red Sea, Tanzania, Australia, Japan, Philippines and Marshall islands.[1]

Description

The length of the slug is 14-45 mm.[1] It is a pale pink-blue, mottled species, with loosely spaced cerata.[3]

This species contains zooxanthellae.[1]

Ecology

Habitat of Phyllodesmium hyalinum is diverse, among shallow coral reefs.[3]

Phyllodesmium hyalinum feeds on Xenia, Xenia umbellata, Heteroxenia fuscescens.[1] This species is more frequently recorded as an incidental to research carried out on its prey species, the alcyonarians Xenia and Heteroxenia.[3] It is camouflaged by the similarity of its cerata to the tentacles of these corals.[3]

References

This article includes CC-BY-SA-3.0 text from the reference [3]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Wagner D., Kahng S. E. & Toonen R. J. (2009). "Observations on the life history and feeding ecology of a specialized nudibranch predator (Phyllodesmium poindimiei), with implications for biocontrol of an invasive octocoral (Carijoa riisei) in Hawaii". Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 372(1-2): 64-74. doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2009.02.007. PDF.
  2. ↑ Burghardt I. & Wägele H. (2004). "A new solar powered species of the genus Phyllodesmium Ehrenberg, 1831 (Mollusca: Nudibranchia: Aeolidoidea) from Indonesia with analysis of its photosynthetic activity and notes on biology". Zootaxa 596: 1-18. PDFt.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 WoRMS (2010). Phyllodesmium hyalinum Ehrenberg. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=221074 on 2011-01-07