Cadlina laevis
Linnaeus, 1767

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Chromodorididae

DISTRIBUTION

Arctic and North Atlantic from intertidal to 800m. Spitzbergen & White Sea, Iceland, Greenland, and on the European coast from Norway to northern Spain. On North American coast south to Massachusetts.

PHOTO

UPPER: Near the wreck of the little concrete yacht at Ballachulish, Loch Leven, west coast, Scotland. 12 metres, 32mm long. 13 May, 2001. LOWER: Avon Rock in the Sound of Mull, Scotland. 16 metres, 24mm long. June 1995. PHOTOS: Jim Anderson. [Scottish Nudibranchs]

Usually white, sometimes with a number of milky yellow glands on the mantle skirt. In rare cases the edge, or the whole mantle is tinged with yellow. It feeds on encrusting slime sponges, in particular Halisarca dujardini. It appears to be a winter breeder, the eggs hatching in about 50 days as small crawling slugs, with no planktonic larval stage.

• See also Bernard Picton's message about colour 'forms'.
• See Cadlina cf. luteomarginata from Nth America.

References:
• Bleakney, J.S., (1996) Sea Slugs of Atlantic Canada and the Gulf of Maine
• Thompson, T.E. & Brown, G.H. (1984) Biology of Opisthobranch Molluscs, Vol 2. Ray Society: London.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2001 (July 4) Cadlina laevis Linnaeus, 1767. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/cadllaev

Related messages

  1. Cadlina laevis from France
    From: Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat, June 29, 2006
  2. Cadlina sp from Portugal
    From: Miguel Macedo, September 6, 2005
  3. Cadlina laevis from Scotland
    From: Jim Anderson, July 9, 2001
  4. Cadlina laevis & C. cf. luteomarginata
    From: Bernard Picton , July 9, 2001

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