Warthog
| Warthog | ||||||||||||
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Phyllidia varicosa : on the left the head with yellow lamellar rhinophore |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Phyllidiidae | ||||||||||||
| Rafinesque , 1815 |
The warthog ( Phyllidiidae ) are a family of star snails in the suborder of the nudibranchs . These are mostly medium-sized, exclusively marine, shellless snail species that eat sponges .
features
The Phyllidiidae have a flattened body with an oval outline, the back of which is covered with hard, colored warts. Because of these warts, the animals are also called warthogs. The two antennae on the head, the rhinophores , are laminated and retractable. There may also be tentacles on the mouth called labial tentacles. Like other star snails, most Phyllidiidae have their anus on the midline of their back. An exception are the snails of the genus Phyllidia , whose anus is located on the belly side at the rear end and can be stretched out. There is no gill ring around the anus, rather the gills are arranged around the body laterally between the coat and the foot on the underside of the coat.
The snails lack both jaw and radula . The pharynx (foregut) has an enlarged, muscular section (pharyngeal bulb), which is connected to the dorsolateral body wall by two powerful muscles and is supplied by oral glands.
The Phyllidiidae eat sponges , mostly a certain species as food specialists . The meat is sucked in with the help of the powerful pharyngeal bulb.
The warthog usually have a conspicuous color that probably serves as a warning color . At least some of the species, such as B. Phyllidia varicosa , secretes substances in the skin that are highly toxic to fish and crustaceans.
Like other star snails, the Phyllidiidae are hermaphrodites and also have three sexual openings. They mate each other with their penises and lay their eggs in mostly white egg cords, from which numerous Veliger larvae hatch, which feed on plankton and after a long pelagic phase metamorphose into small star snails .
The Phyllidiidae include over 80 species, including the ophthalmic warthog ( Phyllidia ocellata ) and the varicose warthog ( Phyllidia varicosa ).
Systematics
According to Bouchet and Rocroi (2005), the family Phyllidiidae is one of three families in the superfamily Phyllidioidea . The family includes five genera with a total of more than 80 species:
- Phyllidia Cuvier , 1797 (type genus)
- Ceratophyllidia Eliot, 1903
- Phyllidiella Bergh , 1869
- Phyllidiopsis Bergh , 1875
- Reticulidia Brunckhorst, 1990
literature
- Luise Schmekel, Adolf Portmann: Opisthobranchia of the Mediterranean: Nudibranchia and Saccoglossa . Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York 1982. Phyllidiidae Gray, 1854 : p. 139.
- Adam Sedgwick, Joseph Jackson Lister, Sir Arthur Everett Shipley: A Student's Text-book of Zoology: Protozoa to Chaetognatha . S. Sonnenschein and Company, 1898. Phyllidiidae : p. 412.
- David J. Brunckhorst (1993): The Systematics and Phylogeny of Phyllidiid Nudibranchs (Doridoidea) (PDF; 14.2 MB) . Records of the Australian Museum (1993), Supplement 16. ISBN 0-7310-0065-X
- LSR Bergh (1875): New contributions to the knowledge of the Phyllidiads (PDF; 1.8 MB) . Negotiations of the Zoological-Botanical Society 25: 659–674.
- Philippe Bouchet & Jean-Pierre Rocroi: Part 2. Working classification of the Gastropoda . Malacologia, 47: 239-283, Ann Arbor 2005, ISSN 0076-2997
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ RE Johannes (1963): A poison-secreting nudibranch (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) . The Veliger 5 (3), pp. 104-105.
- ^ World Register of Marine Species , Phyllidiidae Rafinesque, 1814