The crazed nudibranch, ''Corambe'' sp., as designated by Gosliner, 1987, is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
sea slug
Sea slug is a common name for some marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are sea snails (marine gastropod mollusks) that over evolutionary t ...
, a
dorid
''Doridacea'' is a taxonomic grouping of dorid nudibranchs, shell-less marine gastropod mollusks.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.); Frýda J., Hausdorf B., Ponder W., Valdes A. & Warén A. 2005''Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families ...
nudibranch, a
marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
gastropod
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...
mollusc
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...
in the superfamily
Onchidoridoidea
Onchidoridoidea is a taxonomic superfamily of sea slugs, dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod molluscs.
Families
Families within the superfamily Onchidoridoidea are as follows:Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2015)Onchidoridoidea Gray, 1827.In: MolluscaBa ...
. It is also known as the moss animal nudibranch because its usual prey is a
bryozoan, or moss animal. As at November 2009, it remained
undescribed by science.
Distribution
This species is probably
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to the
South African __NOTOC__
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* The nation of South Africa
* South African Airways
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Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...
coast and is found off the western shore of False Bay in 10–20 m of water.
Description
The crazed nudibranch is a very small (less than 10mm) round nudibranch, which is extremely well camouflaged to match the bryozoan it preys on. Its
rhinophores and
gill
A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...
s are hardly visible and its body is covered with opaque lines.
[Zsilavecz, G. (2007). ''Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay''. ]
Ecology
The crazed nudibranch feeds on the
rectangular membranous lace animal
In Euclidean geometry, Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a par ...
, ''Membranipora membranacea'', which lives on broad bladed
kelp. Its egg mass is a well camouflaged broad flat spiral.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5183067
Corambidae
Undescribed gastropod species