Flabellina trophina
(Bergh, 1894)

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Flabellinidae

PHOTO

Upper: Bear Cove, Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada. Depth: 30-40'. February 9th.Photo: Glen Miller. Lower: Coronation Island in Alaska at about 10m. July 2002. Size was maybe 50mm Photo: Clinton Bauder.

The body and cerata are translucent white, with the ceratal digestive gland duct ranging in colour [pink, dark brown, dark grey]. The cerata are capped with opaque white and both the rhinophores and oral tentacles have a white line running up their posterior sides. There is also a white line on the posterior tip of the foot which bifurcates, each branch ending near the posterior cerata. The slender rhinophores are perfoliate with up to 38 shallow leaves. Irina Roginskaya discusses the nomenclatural history of this species in an attached message. It was previously known on the Forum as Flabellina fusca, O'Donoghue, 1921. Studies on its natural history suggest that as well as feeding on hydroids such as Bougainvillia and Obelia it also feeds on other nudibranchs, crustacea and polychaete worms [see message].

Reference:
• Bergh, L.S.R. (1894) Reports on the dredging operations off the west coast of Central America to the Galapagos, to the west coast of Mexico, and in the Gulf of California, in charge of Alexander Agassiz, carried on by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer "Albatross", during 1891, Lieut. Commander Z. L. Tanner, U.S.N. commanding. 13. Die Opisthobranchien. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, 25(10): 125-233,Pls. 1-12.
• Bergh, L.S.R., 1879. On the nudibranchiate gastropod Mollusca of the North Pacific Ocean, with special results of those of Alaska. Sci.Results of the Exploration of Alaska. I, (5): 127-135.
• O'Donoghue, C.H. (1921). Nudibranchiate mollusca from the Vancouver Island region. Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute, Toronto, 13(1): 147-209
• Roginskaya, I. S. (1986) Reader forum [Coryphella trophina]. Shells & Sea Life, 18(1): 17-18.
• Roginskaya, I. S. (1964) A large-sized nudibranch mollusc Coryphella fusca, O'Donoghue -- predator of small nudibranch molluscs -- Coryphella rufibranchialis Johnston and Cuthona sp. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 43(11): 1717-1719. [In Russian].
• Roginskaya, I. S. (1969) Taxonomy and ecology of the nudibranch mollusc Coryphella fusca. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 48: 1614-1617.
• Roginskaya, I. S. (1990) Data of feeding, distribution and synonymy of Coryphella trophina (Bergh, 1894) (Nudibranchia: Gastropoda), pp. 47-57, 151-152, 156. In: A. P. Kuznetsov, [Ed.], Feeding and bioenergetics of marine bottom invertebrates. Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, 162 pp. [In Russian].

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2003 (April 16) Flabellina trophina (Bergh, 1894). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/flabtrop

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