''Berthellina quadridens'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), 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 ...

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 ...

, 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 mollusc in the family

Pleurobranchidae The Pleurobranchidae are a taxonomic family of sea slugs, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Pleurobranchomorpha. Characteristics Species in the family Pleurobranchidae have a prominent mantle and an internal shell that becomes red ...

Distribution

Distribution of ''Berthellina quadridens'' includes Mexico, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Aruba, Curaçao, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Sint Maarten, St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil. The

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Saint Thomas ( da, Sankt Thomas) is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea which, together with Saint John, Water Island, Hassel Island, and Saint Croix, form a county-equivalent and constituent district of the United States V ...

Description

The body is oval and inflated. Dorsum is smooth, covering the internal

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

, which is located over the anterior portion of the viscera. The anterior end of the body has a large oral veil.

Rhinophores A rhinophore is one of a pair of chemosensory club-shaped, rod-shaped or ear-like structures which are the most prominent part of the external head anatomy in sea slugs, marine gastropod opisthobranch mollusks such as the nudibranchs, sea hare ...

are rolled, emerging between the veil and the dorsum. The color is yellow to orange, semi-translucent. It is up to 25 mm long. Welch (2010) listed that the maximum recorded length is 80 mm.Welch J. J. (2010). "The “Island Rule” and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". '' PLoS ONE'' 5(1): e8776. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008776.

Ecology

Minimum recorded depth is 0 m. Maximum recorded depth is 50 m. It possibly feeds on

sponges Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

and likely on the corals ''

Orbicella faveolata ''Orbicella faveolata'', commonly known as mountainous star coral, is a colonial stony coral in the family Merulinidae. ''Orbicella faveolata'' is native to the coral coast of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and is listed as "endangered" ...

'' and ''

Orbicella annularis ''Orbicella annularis'', commonly known as the boulder star coral, is a species of coral that lives in the western Atlantic Ocean and is the most thoroughly studied and most abundant species of reef-building coral Corals are marine inverteb ...

'' as well as on ''

Anemones ''Anemone'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand an ...

''.

References

This article incorporates Creative Commons (CC-BY-4.0) text from the referenceGoodheart J. A., Ellingson R. A., Vital X. G., Galvão Filho H. C., McCarthy J. B., Medrano S. M., Bhave V. J., García-Méndez K., Jiménez L. M., López G. & Hoover C. A. (2016). "Identification guide to the heterobranch sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Bocas del Toro, Panama". ''Marine Biodiversity Records'' 9(1): 56. {{Taxonbar, from=Q5068922 Pleurobranchidae Gastropods described in 1863