Tenellia adspersa
(Nordmann, 1845)
Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Tergipedidae
DISTRIBUTION
It appears to have a rather cosmopolitan distribution. In the north Atlantic it has been reported from various European sites including the UK and the Mediterranean. It has also been reported from the Atlantic coast of Sth America and in the North Pacific from Japan and much of the west coast of Nth America.
PHOTO
Locality: "L'Ecluse de Verdurette", Domaine de Graveyron, Audenge, Bassin d'Arcachon, 1m, France, Atlantic, 9 October 2006. Length: 3.5 mm. Photographer: Marina Poddubetskaia
The body is a translucent whitish or straw colour with a scattering of dark brown or black irregularly shaped patches. The smooth rounded rhinophores lack any speckling. The cerata can have some black specking and the cream or pinkish digestive gland shows through the ceratal wall. There up to 6 rows of cerata with 2 or 3 cerata in each half row. The head is produced into a flattened oral veil extended on each side into a short tentacle.
This small inconspicuous aeolid rarely reaches 8 mm in length. It lives in shallow and intertidal waters, including estuaries and canals and is found feeding on a variety of hydroids.
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Baba, K. & Hamatani, I. (1963) A short account of the species, Tenellia pallida (A. & H.) taken from Mukaishima, Japan (Nudibranchia - Eolidoidea). Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, 11, 337-338.
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Brown, G. H. (1980) The British species of the aeolidacean family Tergipedidae (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) with a discussion of the genera. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 69, 225-255.
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Evertsen, J., Bakken, T. & Green, S. (2004) Rediscovery of Tenellia adspersa (Nudibranchia) from the Finnish archipelago. Sarsia, 89, 362-365.
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Eyster, L. S. (1979) Reproduction and development variability in the opisthobranch Tenellia pallida. Marine Biology, 51, 133-140.
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Harris, L. G., Powers, M. & Ryan, J. (1980) Life history studies of the estuarine nudibranch Tenellia fuscata (Gould, 1870). The Veliger, 23, 70-74.
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Thompson, T. E. (1988) Molluscs: Benthic Opisthobranchs (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Leiden: The Linnean Society of London.
Rudman, W.B., 2009 (April 2) Tenellia adspersa (Nordmann, 1845). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/teneadsp
Related messages
Juvenile Tenellia adspersa from the Baltic Sea
January 13, 2010
From: Thorsten Walter
Dear Bill,
I am the owner of a small local aquarium/museum located at the Baltic Sea in Lübeck-Travemünde, northern Germany. During our field trips with school clases we sometimes found small nudibranchs, inside the harbour in front of our station. The salinity of the water is normally 1.0-1.5 psu.
Here is another find which I think might be a young specimen of Tenellia adspersa [see my earlier message #23078].
Locality: Harbour, less than 1 metre, Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, Luebeck Bight, Baltic Sea, 21 December 2008, On Mytilus edulis covered with hydroids. Length: 2.5 mm. Photographer: T. Walter.
Best regards
Thorsten Walter
info@ostseestation.de
Walter, T., 2010 (Jan 13) Juvenile Tenellia adspersa from the Baltic Sea. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23080
Dear Thorsten,
I think you are right in assuming this is a juvenile of Tenellia adspersa. The shape of the head certainly looks like a tergipedid, but the lack of any oral tentacles suggest that it is a young Tenellia in which the oral tentacles have not yet developed.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
Tenellia adspersa from the Baltic Sea
January 12, 2010
From: Thorsten Walter
Dear Bill,
I am the owner of a small local aquarium/museum located at the Baltic Sea in Lübeck-Travemünde, northern Germany. During our field trips with school clases we sometimes found small nudibranchs, inside the harbour in front of our station. The salinity of the water is normally 1.0-1.5 psu.
Locality: harbour, less than 1 meter, Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, Luebeck, Baltic Sea, 30 March 2009, On Mytilus edulis covered with hydroids and polyps of Aurelia aurita. Length: 4 mm. Photographer: T. Walter.
This is my second message. I have tentatively identified this species as Tenellia adspersa.
It would be great if you or somebody else can help me with the species identification.
Best regards
Thorsten Walter
info@ostseestation.de
Walter, T., 2010 (Jan 12) Tenellia adspersa from the Baltic Sea. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23078
Dear Thorsten,
yes this is Tenellia adspersa. In your second photo, which shows the animal from underneath, the large white spheres are possibly the eggs, or perhaps the ovaries. As you will see in an earlier message, this species has two types of larval development. It can produce a few large eggs which hatch out as small crawling young, or it can produce more smaller eggs which develop into swimming veliger larvae, which do not feed in the plankton after hatching but quickly settle on the bottom and turn into a crawling slug. This short free-swimming larval stage may be an advantage for some populations, as it allows the young to move further from the parental home.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
Re: Tenellia adspersa from Arcachon Bay
April 7, 2009
From: Marina Poddubetskaia Ossokine
Concerning message #22381:
Dear Bill,
To answer your request of more photos of Tenellia adspersa, here is another set from Arcachon Bay :
Upper photo: a 1 mm long juvenile and as you can see it, at this size the oral tentacles aren't visible on the oral veil.
Locality: "L'Ecluse de Verdurette", Domaine de Graveyron, Audenge, Bassin d'Arcachon, 1 m, France, Atlantic: 25 August 2006, Length: 1 mm. Photographer: Marina Poddubetskaia .
Middle photo: the lateral view of a 3 mm long specimen.
Locality: "L'Ecluse de Verdurette", Domaine de Graveyron, Audenge, Bassin d'Arcachon, 1 m, France, Atlantic: 4 September 2006, Length: 3 mm. Photographer: Marina Poddubetskaia .
Lower photo: another view of the 3.5 mm long specimen in my previous message.
Best wishes,
Marina.
Nembro website
nembro@yahoo.fr
Poddubetskaia Ossokine, M., 2009 (Apr 7) Re: Tenellia adspersa from Arcachon Bay. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22399
Dear Marina,
Thanks for these extra photos.
Following our on-going discussion on different egg masses in animals identified as Ercolania viridis [message #22387] I should mention that Tenellia adspersa is one species that has been shown to have two development types. Individuals can produce a few egg masses with relatively large eggs which hatch as small crawling slugs [direct development] or it can lay many egg masses with slightly smaller eggs which hatch as swimming but non-feeding larvae [lecithotrophic].
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
Tenellia adspersa from Arcachon Bay
April 3, 2009
From: Marina Poddubetskaia Ossokine
Dear Bill,
I think you would be interested in these photos of Tenellia adspersa from the French Atlantic. Let me know if you want more photos of this tiny species.
Locality: "L'Ecluse de Verdurette", Domaine de Graveyron, Audenge, Bassin d'Arcachon, 1m, France, Atlantic, 9 October 2006. Length: Animal : 3,5 mm / eggs : 1,5 mm . Photographer: Marina Poddubetskaia .
Best wishes,
Marina.
Nembro website
nembro@yahoo.fr
Dear Marina,
Thanks for providing us with another species. It is another of those 'classic' European species which make the textbooks but are seldom seen - I guess because of their small size. Since it is rarely photographed, if you have further photos showing it from different angles, they would be very welcome.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
