Conualevia alba
Collier and Farmer, 1964

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

DISTRIBUTION

Eastern Pacific from from Monterey, California south to the Galapagos Islands.

PHOTO

Locality: Monterey, 7 m, California, USA, Pacific Ocean, October 2006, subtidal. Length: 11 mm. Photographer: Jeff Goddard.

This species ranges from Monterey, California, south to the Galapagos Islands, and is usually found under rocks, where it preys on unidentified demosponges (personal observations). It has smooth, tapering rhinophores, small, evenly spaced notal papillae, and large white defensive glands around the notal margin. Like some other dorids consistently found feeding under rocks (e.g. Crimora coneja and Limacia cockerelli), it lays its thin egg ribbon flat, rather than on edge like most other dorids. The eggs averaged about 89 microns in diameter and hatched as typical planktotrophic veligers with shells about 150 microns long.

• Behrens, D. W. & A. Hermosillo. (2005). Eastern Pacific nudibranchs. Sea Challengers, Monterey, California
• Collier, C. L. & W. M. Farmer. (1964). Additions to the nudibranch fauna of the east Pacific and the Gulf of California. Transactions of the San Diego Natural History Society, 13, 377-396.
• Camacho-Garcia, Y., T. M. Gosliner & A. Valdes. (2005). Field Guide to the sea slugs of the tropical eastern Pacific. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California.

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