Chelidonura hirundinina

Chelidonura hirundinina
Chelinodura hirundinina
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Euopisthobranchia clade Cephalaspidea
Superfamily:	Philinoidea
Family:	Aglajidae
Genus:	Chelidonura
Species:	C. hirundinina
Binomial name
Chelidonura hirundinina (Quoy & Gaimard, 1833)

Chelidonura hirundinina is a species of small and colorful aglajid sea slug, a shell-less opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Aglajidae. Despite its colorful appearance, this is not a species of nudibranch; it is a cephalaspidean, a headshield slug. This is a tropical species which lives in the western Indo-Pacific, and also in the Caribbean Sea.

Description

This species has a maximum size of 40 mm, but is often smaller than that. The background color can be red, orange, dark brown, or black. There are blue, black, and orange stripes on the body, and there is a white marking towards the posterior end of the animal.

The two rather long "tails" at the end of the animal are characteristic of the genus Chelidonura. The specific epithet hirundinina is Latin, meaning "little swallow", in reference to this swallow-tailed appearance.

Life habits

This species eats flatworms.

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  Mating nudibranchs

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  A pair of mating Chelidonura hirundinina in Kona, Hawaii]]

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  A ball of mating Chelidonura hirundinina, Kona, Hawaii]]

References

Books

• Valdez, Hamann, Berhrens & DuPont, 2006, Caribbean sea slugs: a field guide to the opisthobranch mollusks from the tropical northwestern Atlantic, Sea Challengers Natural History Books, Washington

External links

• Sea Slug Forum: [1]