Blue-speckled nudibranch

Blue-speckled nudibranch Dendrodoris caesia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Nudipleura clade Nudibranchia clade Euctenidiacea clade Doridacea
Superfamily:	Phyllidioidea
Family:	Dendrodorididae
Genus:	Dendrodoris
Species:	D. caesia
Binomial name
Dendrodoris caesia (Bergh, 1905)

The blue-speckled nudibranch, Dendrodoris caesia, is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Dendrodorididae.

Distribution

This species has so far only been found around the southern African coast from the Cape Peninsula to Port Elizabeth subtidally to at least 20 m. It is probably endemic.^[1]

Description

A pink morph of the blue-speckled nudibranch

The blue-speckled nudibranch is a large nudibranch with a frilly margin. The speckles can be almost continuous and in some specimens the animal is pink-speckled. The rhinophores are perfoliate and the gill rosette is large and blue-edged. It may reach a total length of 120 mm.^[2]

Ecology

This species feeds on a yellow-brown sponge. The egg mass is a messy ribbon of several whorls.

References

1. ^ GOSLINER, T.M. 1987. Nudibranchs of Southern Africa ISBN 0-930118-13-8
2. ^ ZSILAVECZ, G. 2007. Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay. ISBN 0-620-38054-3

External links