(Alder & Hancock, 1854)

Description:
The slender, translucent white body measures up to 18 mm in length; the opaque white ovotestis and the brown jaws can usually be discerned through the skin. There are white patches on the skin of the rhinophores and oral tentacles, sometimes concentrated near the tips, and there are diagnostically important scattered white speckles on the cerata, contrasting with the light brown, pink or yellow hepatic contents. There are up to twelve rows of cerata, with up to eight cerata in each half-row.

Habitat:
It is associated with the hydroid Halecium muricatum .

Distribution:
British records have been few, most recently from Skomer and Lundy Islands in the south west, and from the island of Mull on the west coast of Scotland, down to 33 m. Elsewhere, it is known to occur in Iceland, the Kattegat and Brittany (Distr. C. pustulata).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Gastropoda
Subclass Opisthobranchia
Order Nudibranchia
Suborder Aeolidiina
Family Tergipedidae
Genus Cuthona
Species Cuthona pustulata

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Cuthona pustulata (Alder & Hancock, 1854)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Eolis pustulata Alder & Hancock, 1854
Cratena pustulata; Eliot, 1906
Cratenopsis pustulata; Lemche, 1936
Trinchesia pustulata; Pruvot-Fol, 1954
Cuthona pustulata (Alder & Hancock, 1854): Picton, 1995

Seaward, D.R., 1990. Distribution of the marine molluscs of north west Europe. Nature Conservancy Council.

Thompson, T.E. & G.H. Brown, 1976/1984. Biology of Opisthobranch Molluscs, volume I and II. Ray Society. London.

Thompson, T.E., 1988. Molluscs: Benthic Opisthobranchs (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Synopses of the British fauna (NS), 8: 1-356.

You can continue searching for Cuthona pustulata on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

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