Dendronotus subramosus
MacFarland, 1966

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DENDRONOTINA
Family: Dendronotidae

DISTRIBUTION

Los Coronados Islands, Baja California to San Juan Channel, B.C. Canada.

PHOTO

San Miguel Island, Channel Ids, California, 27 July 2001. approx 65 feet. on Aglaophenia. Photos: Bruce Wight.

The general background colour of the animal varies from translucent brown through to yellow, orange or dark brown. The colour can be uniform with no patterning or there can be small scattered lemon-yellow spots, or spots of dark brown, reddish brown, or green, or white, or a combination of these. There can also be brown longitudinal lines.

The pallial margin of head is rounded with a series of four to six stout branched processes, the two nearest the mid-line on either side usually the largest, the next somewhat smaller, and the outermost, when present being little more than small tubercles. The largest of these processes bear short blunt branches given off at a sharp angle to the main stalk; the smaller outer processes usually being unbranched. The rhinophore stalk is smooth, lacking any of the basal external processes found in other species of the genus. The sheath, at the top of the rhinophore stalk bears five to seven short blunt processes, the longest on the rear margin, the others progressively shorter toward the front of the sheath edge. The largest of these processes may bear one or more short blunt tubercle-like branches. There are usually six pairs, of branching dorso-lateral papillae along the mantle edge. The anus opens dorso-laterally about midway between the first and second dorsal papillae of the right side. Most reports suggest it feeds exclusively on hydroids of the genus Aglaophenia

References:
• Farmer, W.M. (1980). Sea-slug gastropods. W.M.Farmer Enterprises, Inc. Tempe, AZ, USA.
• MacFarland, F.M. (1966). Studies of Opisthobranchiate Mollusks of the Pacific Coast of North America. Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, VI: 546pp.
• Robilliard, G. A. (1970) The systematics and some aspects of the ecology of the genus Dendronotus. The Veliger, 12(4): 433-479, pls. 63-64.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2003 (July 30) Dendronotus subramosus MacFarland, 1966. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/dendsubr

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