Breitwarzige thread snail
| Breitwarzige thread snail | ||||||||||||
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Aeolidia papillosa |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Aeolidia papillosa | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1761) |
The broad-waxy thread snail ( Aeolidia papillosa ) is found in the Atlantic and its marginal seas . This snail belongs to the thread snails in the suborder of the nudibranch in the order of the hind gill .
Appearance
The slender body is covered with more than two hundred small, dark gray cerata (dorsal appendages), only a triangular area from the rhinophores to the middle back is free and colored reddish brown and gray. The outer ends of the foot at the head end are drawn out into smooth mouth tentacles, which can be longer than the rhinophores. The snail reaches a length of 12 centimeters.
Numerous cerata with extensions of the midgut gland, which like other thread snails can store the nettle cells of their prey consisting of cnidarians as kleptocnids .
homeland
The broad-waxy thread snail can be found on rocks, as well as on harbor walls and on algae in the Atlantic, English Channel , North Sea and western Baltic Sea .
nutrition
More than other thread snails, the prey of the broad-waxy thread snail consists of sea anemones . Before the tentacles are eaten, the snail covers it with a slime that prevents the nettle capsules from exploding . The inhibition is specific to the prey, but the composition of the mucus is also adjusted when switching to other prey types.
Aeolidia papillosa is also able to store the zooxanthellae of the prey anemones in their cerata for up to eleven days, so that they can continue to carry out photosynthesis and thus supply the snail with carbohydrates.
literature
- Louise Schmekel & Adolf Portmann: Opisthobranchia of the Mediterranean: Nudibranchia and Sacoglossa (Fauna e flora del Golfo di Napoli, 40). 410 pp., Berlin, Springer Verlag 1982 ISBN 3-540-11354-1 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Paul G. Greenwood (2004): Adaptable Defense: A Nudibranch Mucus Inhibits Nematocyst Discharge and Changes With Prey Type . Biological Bulletin 206 (2), pp. 113-120.
- ↑ FK McFarland (1993): Photosynthesis and Retention of Zooxanthellae and Zoochlorellae within the Aeolid Nudibranch Aeolidia papillosa . Biological Bulletin 184 (2), pp. 223-229.
