Facelina coronata or F. bostoniensis ?

July 18, 2001
From: Miquel Pontes


Hello Bill,
The other day [July 2001] we dived in 10 meters of water on a silt bottom in Badalona, near Barcelona (Spain), and found a lot of interesting life forms, quite different to the rocky bottom life forms we are used to. A nudibranch was hidden below a dead molusc shell and intrigued us specially...

It is clearly a Facelina but the species is not clear to us, as it seems to have characteristics of both F. coronata and F. bostoniensis.

F. coronata is more common in the Mediterranean and has blue iridiscent marks in cerata and oral tentacles, while F. bostoniensis is not as common and does not have the blue marks, showing a white line on the head instead.

The attached pictures show confuse marks for this nudibranch: the specimen has blue marks as F. coronata and a white line on the head as F. bostoniensis. Long cerata seem those of F. bostoniensis but F. coronata may have long cerata as well. Erwin Koehler's page about F. coronata [http://www.medslugs.de/E/Mediterranean/Facelina_coronata.htm] shows interesting pictures that induced us further doubts on the identification of this species. I would like to thank Luís Sánchez Tocino (Universidad de Granada) for his comments on this subject and thank you for your help.
Miquel Pontes

mpontes@marenostrum.org

Pontes, M., 2001 (Jul 18) Facelina coronata or F. bostoniensis ?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4801

Dear Miquel,
I think I will leave this to someone with local knowledge of these animals. As you say, it certainly has a mix of characters.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Factsheet

Facelina bostoniensis

Related messages

  1. Facelina bostoniensis burrowing
    From: Jerry Shine, April 29, 2010
  2. Facelina bostoniesis in Massachusetts, USA - feeding observations
    From: Jerry Shine, April 7, 2010
  3. Re: Facelina auriculata? from Mediterranean
    From: Greg Brown, May 25, 2009
  4. Facelina auriculata? from Mediterranean
    From: Dominique Horst, May 18, 2009
  5. Facelina bostoniensis from Istanbul
    From: Goker Goksel, July 11, 2007
  6. Facelina bostoniensis mating
    From: Christian Skauge, June 27, 2007
  7. Facelina bostoniensis - feeding information
    From: Vincent Maran, July 8, 2006
  8. Facelina bostoniensis or Coryphella sp.?
    From: Rebecca Asch, March 4, 2004
  9. Re: Flabellina browni? from Scotland
    From: Dan Edwards, November 24, 2003
  10. Re: Flabellina browni? from Scotland
    From: Jussi Evertsen, November 21, 2003
  11. Re: Flabellina browni? from Scotland
    From: Dan Edwards, November 21, 2003
  12. Flabellina browni? from Scotland
    From: Dan Edwards, November 20, 2003
  13. Facelina bostoniensis from Scotland
    From: Jim Anderson, November 7, 2002
  14. Re: Facelina coronata or F. bostoniensis ?
    From: Bernard Picton, July 20, 2001
  15. Re: Facelina coronata or F. bostoniensis ?
    From: Juan Lucas Cervera, July 20, 2001
  16. Re: Facelina coronata or F. bostoniensis ?
    From: Juan Lucas Cervera, July 19, 2001
  17. Re: Facelina coronata or F. bostoniensis ?
    From: Miquel Pontes, July 19, 2001
  18. Facelina bostoniensis from the Netherlands
    From: Peter H. van Bragt, September 7, 1999
  19. Re: Facelina bostoniensis
    From: Terry Gosliner, August 30, 1999
  20. NY Flab. salmonacea is Facelina bostoniensis
    From: Terry Gosliner, August 29, 1999
  21. Flabellina salmonacea? from New York
    From: Betsey Hansen, August 27, 1999

Show factsheet and all related messages