Jorunna spazzola explained

Jorunna spazzola is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Discodorididae.^[1]

Taxonomy

It is possibly synonymous with Jorunna luisae.^[2]

Camacho-García et al. (2014)^[3] suggested Caribbean animals identified as Jorunna spazzola could constitute a distinct species, because they display external differences with the original description from southern Brazil.

Distribution

This species was described from Brazil. The distribution of Jorunna spazzola includes Florida,^[4] Honduras, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cuba, Curaçao, Barbados, Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, Brazil and Panama.

Description

The body is oval. The mantle is rigid. Dorsum is flattened and covered with small caryophyllidia. Branchial leaves are very short. Background color is translucent gray with a few darker gray or brown patches over the dorsum. Mantle margin is surrounded by small opaque white glands. Rhinophores and gill are the same color as the rest of the body. It is up to 18 mm long or up to is 36 mm.^[5]

According to Rudman (2008), this species is known mostly from internal characters and needs clarification.^[6]

Ecology

Minimum recorded depth is 0 m.^[5] Maximum recorded depth is 1.5 m.^[5] It was found under rocks in Panama.

Prey of Jorunna spazzola include sponges of the order Haplosclerida: Callyspongia pallida and Chalinula sp.^[7] It is well camouflaged on its prey. This species is able to quickly change colors as a response to unknown environmental cues.

References

This article incorporates Creative Commons (CC-BY-4.0) text from the reference^[8]

Notes and References

1. Bouchet, P. (2015). Jorunna spazzola (Marcus, 1955). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2015-10-11
2. Camacho-García Y. E. & Gosliner T. M. (2008). "Systematic revision of Jorunna Bergh, 1876 (Nudibranchia: Discodorididae) with a morphological phylogenetic analysis". Journal of Molluscan Studies 74: 143-181. .
3. Camacho-García Y., Pola M., Carmona L., Padula V., Villani G. & Cervera L. (2014). "Diversity and distribution of the heterobranch sea slug fauna on the Caribbean of Costa Rica". Cah Biol Mar. 55: 109–127.
4. http://www.medslugs.de/E/Atl-W/Jorunna_spazzola/Jorunna_spazzola_01.htm Jorunna spazzola.
5. Welch J. J. (2010). "The “Island Rule” and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". PLoS ONE 5(1): e8776. .
6. Rudman W. B. (2001 September 20). Jorunna cf. spazzola (Marcus, 1955). Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.
7. Belmonte T., Alvim J., Padula V. & Muricy G. (2015). "Spongivory by nudibranchs on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, southeastern Brazil". Spixiana 38(2): 187–195. PDF.
8. Goodheart J. A., Ellingson R. A., Vital X. G., Galvão Filho H. C., McCarthy J. B., Medrano S. M., Bhave V. J., García-Méndez K., Jiménez L. M., López G. & Hoover C. A. (2016). "Identification guide to the heterobranch sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Bocas del Toro, Panama". Marine Biodiversity Records 9(1): 56.