Doris verrucosa
Linnaeus, 1758
Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Dorididae
DISTRIBUTION
Mediterranean and Atlantic coast of Europe as far as the British Isles, where it is a rare visitor. Also in west Atlantic from Brazil borth to Massachusetts.
PHOTO
Banyuls sur Mer, Southern France,1988. Lower photo an enlargement of gill pocket to show characteristic large tubercles. PHOTO: Daniel L. Geiger.
Large species growing to 70mm in length. body grey or yellowish with tubercles of varying sizes. The gill pocket is surrounded by up to eight very large tubercles, and there are a pair on each rhinophore pocket.
Reference:
• Thompson, T.E. & Brown, G.H. (1984) Biology of Opisthobranch Molluscs, Vol 2. Ray Society: London.
Rudman, W.B., 1999 (October 19) Doris verrucosa Linnaeus, 1758. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/doriverr
Related messages
Re: Doris verrucosa from Mediterranean France
October 7, 2009
From: Dominique Horst
Concerning message #7198:
Hi Bill,
We met many Doris verrucosa recently which let us appreciate their colour variation. It seems that the brown line on their back is not an obvious character?
Locality: Thau, 5m, France, Mediterranean sea, 28 June 2009. Length: 35 mm. Photographer: Dominique Horst.
Best regards
Dominique
dominique.horst@wanadoo.fr
Thanks Dom,
I am always told this is a very common European species, but we don't have many examples on the Forum. It certainly seems quite varaible in colour - at least in the yellowish brown range. From what I can gather, probably the most characteristic external feature is the presence of large elongate tubercles around the edge of the gill pocket. I have roughly outlined them in one of the close-ups above.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
Doris verrucosa from Senegal
July 9, 2003
From: Marina Poddubetskaia
Dear Bill,
I found these dorids during night dive. Are they Doris verrucosa?
Date: June 02, 2003
Location: Dakar, Senegal, Eastern Atlantic
Site: Terou baye Sogui
Depth: 4m
Size:
(1) 20-25mm
(2) 25mm
Photos: Marina Poddubetskaia - Nembro website
Best wishes,
Marina.
nembro@nembro.info
Poddubetskaia, M., 2003 (Jul 9) Doris verrucosa from Senegal. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10234Thanks Marina,
Yes I would agree that this is Doris verrucosa.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
Doris verrucosa - egg-ribbon
July 9, 2003
From: Marina Poddubetskaia
Dear Bill,
When I brought these Doris verrucosa into my tank (see the previous message), one of them began to lay its eggs (upper photo). At the end I photographed its nice ribbon 20-25mm in diameter (lower photos). Photos: Marina Poddubetskaia - Nembro website
Best wishes,
Marina.
nembro@nembro.info
Thanks Marina,
There's certainly no doubt about who owns this egg ribbon
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
Doris verrucosa from Mediterranean France
June 15, 2002
From: Jean-Pierre Bielecki
Hi Bill
Here are some pictures of the beautiful Doris verrucosa which is so abundant in spring at this place.
Size : 4cm
Depth : 5m
Dive Site : Sète (Méditerranean), étang de Thau, France.
Best regards
Jean-Pierre Bielecki
bielecki.jeanpierre@free.fr
Thanks Jean-Pierre,
Bill Rudman
Re: Is this Doris verrucosa?
October 21, 1999
From: Ángel Valdés
Dear Bill,
I'm pretty sure that the species photographed by Daniel Geiger is Doris verrucosa. Unfortunately I don't have any photo of this species with me, but I collected it very often in Northern Spain. The spherical dorsal tubercles and the long papillae around the gill and rhinophoral sheaths are very characteristic of Doris verrucosa, and are not present in any other Atlantic species. As you said, the specimen in the picture has a dorsal gill, and therefore it is not a phyllidiid. Moreover, Phyllidiopsis berghi is a uniformly white species with smaller dorsal tubercles. It is a very rare species only found in deep waters.
Doris verrucosa is one of the most common Atlantic species of dorids but its identity is not very clear. It was described by Linnaeus in 1758 based on two prelinnean non-binominal works: Rumphius (1705) and Seba (1735), and a short description in Latin. I checked these prelinnean papers with Philippe Bouchet in Paris and we found that none of these authors described what we call today Doris verrucosa. Rumphius described a shell-less gastropod, probably an Onchidella whereas Seba described an specimen of Phyllidiella pustulosa. After all Doris verrucosa could be a phyllidiid! It is obvious that Linnaeus never saw specimens of Doris verrucosa and he described this species as having several tentacles around the mouth! Few authors detected these problems long time ago, and that's why the name Staurodoris has been proposed to replace Doris. Philippe Bouchet and I sent a proposal to the Commission of Zoological Nomenclature asking to designate a neotype for Doris verrucosa, according to the present usage of the name, and to suppress the name Staurodoris.
Angel
avaldes@calacademy.org
Valdés, A., 1999 (Oct 21) Re: Is this Doris verrucosa?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1445Is this Doris verrucosa?
October 20, 1999
From: Erwin Koehler
Bill,
I don't want to get on your nerves - asking for IDs of Mediterranean slugs...but I think your FORUM is pretty much more visited as my site, maybe you or somebody else can help me.
This photo is by Daniel L. Geiger, from Southern France, Banyuls sur Mer, 1988.
Daniel tenatively identified it (with ???) as Phyllidiopsis berghi. I think it looks a little bit like Doris verrucosa in the "Atlas of Mediterranean Nudibranchs" with retracted gills, but this is only a
guess.
Erwin.
Medslugs.Koehler@t-online.de
Koehler, E., 1999 (Oct 20) Is this Doris verrucosa?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1444Dear Erwin,
I usually go to your site when I am trying to sort out Mediterranean species! Daniel has also sent me this photo. I agree with you that it is not a phyllidiid. I have added an enlargement of the gill pocket above, which shows it can't be a phyllidiid.
More importantly, the very large tubercles, bordering the gill pocket, (see the white arrows), are considered characteristic of Doris verrucosa by Thompson & Brown (1984), so I think your guess is probably correct.
I have had trouble finding a good photograph of this species, either in books or websites, so I might be quite wrong. If anyone has a good photo they are willing to share, it would be very welcome.
Bill Rudman.
