Drummond's thread snail
| Drummond's thread snail | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Drummond's thread snail ( Facelina bostoniensis ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Facelina bostoniensis | ||||||||||||
| ( Couthouy , 1838) |
Drummond's thread snail ( Facelina bostoniensis ) is a marine species of snail belonging to the family of the thread slugs Facelinidae in the suborder of the nudibranch .
description
Drummond's thread snail has an elongated body tapering to a point at the end with numerous gill appendages located in clusters on both sides of the body . On the head there is a pair of head tentacles, long mouth tentacles and foot tentacles. The body of the snail is light pink-brown (partly translucent), the gill appendages are clearly darker - brown-red to dark brown - with lighter or white tips.
The snail reaches a length of up to 4.5 cm, but often remains significantly smaller.
distribution
Drummond's thread snail occurs in the Mediterranean and Atlantic - there the distribution area extends from the North American east coast to the North Sea - and from there to the western Baltic Sea (approximately to the Belt Sea ).
Way of life
Drummond's thread snail occurs from a depth of 3 meters on hard ground, where it grazes on polyps and brown algae or eats (of) mussels and other sea slugs . The nettle cells of the grazed polyps are not digested, but stored in the dorsal appendages of the body, where they are used for defense ( kleptocnids ).
The spawn of Drummond's thread snail forms white, irregular strings that adhere firmly to the ground.
Others
The scientific species name bostoniensis was given after the city of Boston . The English name Drummond's facelina ("Drummonds thread snail") goes back to the Irish naturalist and anatomy professor James Lawson Drummond (1783-1853), who found that Facelina bostoniensis occurs frequently on the Welsh coast.
supporting documents
literature
- Peter Jonas: Underwater World Baltic Sea. Hamburg 1997.
