Colpodaspis sp ??

April 19, 2010
From: Jean Michel Crouzet

Hello,

During a dive in Ile de groix, Bretagne, France yesterday, a friend found this cephalaspidae (i think) 3/4 mm in 2 meter deep. It looks looks like Colpodapsis pusilla but it has more holes.

Can you help me for identification (Sorry for my English)

Locality: ile de groix, 2 metres, Bretagne [Brittany] France, Atlantic Ocean, 09 April 2010. Length: 3/4 mm. Photographer: Christophe Moreau.

Jean Michel Crouzet

jean_michel.crouzet56@orange.fr

Crouzet, J.M. , 2010 (Apr 19) Colpodaspis sp ??. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23507

Dear jean michel,

The general shape is similar to Colpodaspis, but the raised hole in your animal, which is a short tubular siphon, is at the front of the animal, over its head, while in Colpodaspis the siphon is on the right side near the back of the body.  The position of the siphon, which takes water into the 'mantle cavity' and over the gills, represents one of the main differences between sea snails and sea slugs [see Fact Sheet on torsion and detorsion].

Your animal is a sea snail in which the shell is covered by a layer of skin. It is belongs to the family Velutinidae [Lamellariidae] and is most probably a species of Lamellaria. Many species are quite variable in colour and unfortunately the best way to indentify them is to take out their shell. sometimes.

The brownish spots all over your animal look like holes but are in fact not. Velutinids feed on colonial ascidians, and these hole-like spots look like the water siphons of the colonial ascidians they eat [see photos on ascidian Fact Sheet]. It is all part of their elaborate camouflage

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2010 (Apr 19). Comment on Colpodaspis sp ?? by Jean Michel Crouzet. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23507

Factsheet

Velutinidae - are they sea slugs?

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