Acteon tornatilis from South Wales, UK

October 27, 2006
From: Judith Oakley

Hi Bill,
A new species for me - Acteon tornatilis - found on a sandy beach near my home town in South Wales. Not a marina survey this time! An interesting species as it is a shelled seaslug, feeding on the polychaete worm Lanice conchilega.

Locality: Aberavon Beach, Port Talbot, on sand, South Wales, UK, 26 August 2006, sandy beach. Length: 2 cm. Photographer: Judith Oakley.

Best wishes
Judith

jomoakley@btinternet.com

Oakley, J.A., 2006 (Oct 27) Acteon tornatilis from South Wales, UK. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17726

Dear Judith,
It's nice to get a mention of this interesting 'primitive' opisthobranch. It was long considered a detritus feeder, I suspect because that best fitted the scenario that as a primitive opisthobranch it should have a primitive unspecialised feeding behaviour. However Anne Hurst (1965) reported that it was a specialised vermivore, and this behaviour was studied in some detail by Nathalie Yonow (1989).

If anyone has a photo of the living animal, I would love to include it on the Forum.

  • Hurst, A. (1965) Studies on the structure and function of the feeding apparatus of Philine aperta with a comparative consideration of some other opisthobranchs. Malacologia, 2(3): 281-347.
  • Yonow, N. (1989) Feeding observations on Acteon tornatilis (Linnaeus) (Opisthobranchia: Acteonidae). Journal of Molluscan Studies 55: 97-102.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Oct 27). Comment on Acteon tornatilis from South Wales, UK by Judith Oakley. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17726

Factsheet

Acteon tornatilis

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