Okenia angelensis
Lance, 1966

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: ANADORIDOIDEA
Family: Goniodorididae

DISTRIBUTION

Known from San Francisco Bay, California to Mexico. Also reported from Chile.

PHOTO

Upper: Morro Bay, California, USA. Length: 5mm. on floating docks. Photo: Gary McDonald. Lower: SEM photo of section of right side of radula showing large inner and small bicuspid outer teeth. Scale bar = 6 µm. Photo: T.M. Gosliner.

The body is elongate with seven to eight pairs of elongate, rounded lateral papillae around the mantle edge. On the dorsum there are another 8 papillae, including a pair in front of the rhinophores and approx 4 in the midline between the rhinophores and the gills.

The rhinophores are elongate with two to three well-separated lamellae. There are five to seven unipinnate gills. The anterior margin of the head includes two elongate oral tentacles that extend anterolaterally, similar in size and shape to the mantle papillae. Radula and reproductive system similar to Okenia zoobotryon.

The body is translucent with the yellowish-brown viscera showing through the body wall. The body is coloured with small white, yellow and dark brown, spots which are scattered irregularly over all parts of the body. It grows to approximately 12 mm in length. Found in shallow bays on floating docks or in the shallow subtidal. No information is available on its food.

  • Behrens, D.W. (1980) Pacific Coast Nudibranchs. Sea Challengers: Los Osos. 112pp.
  • Gosliner, T. M. & Bertsch, H. (2004) Systematics of Okenia from the Pacific Coast of North America (Nudibranchia: Goniodorididae) with descriptions of three new species. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 55: 412-428, figs. 1-11.
  • Lance, J. 1966. New distributional records of some northeastern Pacific Opisthobranchiata (Mollusca: Gastropoda) with descriptions of two species. The Veliger 9(1):69–81.
  • Muñoz, M.A., Á. Valdés, & Ortea, J. (1996) The genus Okenia Menke 1830 (Nudibranchia: Goniodorididae) in Chile. Haliotis, 25:101–106.
Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2005 (January 1) Okenia angelensis Lance, 1966. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/okenangelens

Related messages


Photo of Okenia angelensis

January 1, 2005
From: Gary McDonald

Dear Bill:
Congratulations on the return of the forum, it's great to see it active again.

Here's a photo of Okenia angelensis for your species accounts, its the only photo I have on my home computer. I may have a better photo at work, but won't be back there until 3 Jan 2005, when I'll look for a better photo and for the data for this photo.

Locality: Morro Bay,  on floating docks, California, USA
Length: 5mm. Photographer: Gary McDonald

Thanks,
Gary McDonald

mcduck@ucsc.edu

McDonald, G.R., 2005 (Jan 1) Photo of Okenia angelensis . [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12825

Dear Gary,
Thanks for the photo. Its nice to fill another gap. If you find another photo and/or more data I'll add it later
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Jan 1). Comment on Photo of Okenia angelensis by Gary McDonald. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12825