''Felimare picta'', sometimes called the regal sea goddess is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of colourful

sea slug Sea slug is a common name for some Marine biology, marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial Slug, slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are Sea snail, sea snails (marine gastropod moll ...

or dorid

nudibranch Nudibranchs () are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs, belonging to the order Nudibranchia, that shed their shells after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have b ...

, a marine

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Chromodorididae Chromodorididae, or chromodorids, are a taxonomic family of colourful sea slugs; dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Doridoidea. “Chromodorid nudibranchs are among the most gorgeously coloured of all animals.� ...

.Bouchet, P. (2012)
''Felimare picta''.
Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2012-05-14. Atlantic Ocean species of ''

Hypselodoris ''Hypselodoris'' is a genus of colourful sea slugs or dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Chromodorididae.MolluscaBase (2018)''Hypselodoris'' Stimpson, 1855.Accessed on 2018-09-16. Modern usage follows a more restricted vi ...

'' were all transferred to ''Felimare'' following a DNA phylogeny.

Subspecies

Several species were formerly considered to be subspecies of ''Felimare picta'' but several have now been elevated to species rank.Ortea, J., Valdés, A. & and García-Gómez, J.C. (1996) 'Revisión de las especies atlánticas de la familia Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) de grupo cromático azul. eview of the Atlantic species of the family Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) of the blue chromatic group. Avicennia, 1996, Suppl. 1: 1-165. * ''Felimare (Hypselodoris) picta azorica'' Ortea, Valdés & García-Gómez, 1996 * ''Felimare (Hypselodoris) picta lajensis'' (Troncoso, Garcia & Urgorri, 1998) is a species, ''

Felimare lajensis ''Felimare lajensis'' is a species of sea slug or dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Chromodorididae. Distribution This nudibranch is found in Brazil. Description ''Felimare lajensis'' is dark blue in colour with a se ...

'' (Troncoso, Garcia & Urgorri, 1998) * ''Felimare (Hypselodoris) picta picta'' (Schultz in Philippi, 1836) * ''Felimare (Hypselodoris) picta tema'' (Edmunds, 1981) is a species, ''

Felimare tema ''Felimare tema'' is a species of sea slug or dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Chromodorididae.MolluscaBase (2018)''Felimare tema'' (Edmunds, 1981).Accessed on 2018-12-28. Distribution This species was described from ...

'' (Edmunds, 1981) * ''Felimare (Hypselodoris) picta webbi'' (d'Orbigny, 1839) * ''Felimare (Hypselodoris) picta verdensis'' Ortea, Valdés & García-Gómez, 1996 is a species, ''

'' (Edmunds, 1981) Image:Felimare Arrecife B147800.jpg, large individual,

Arrecife Arrecife (; ; ) is the capital city and a municipality of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. It was made the island's capital in 1852. The city owes its name to the rock reef ("arrecife" being Spanish for "reef") which covers its local beach. It als ...

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

. Image:Felimare picta B147924.jpg, large individual with less yellow colouration, Lanzarote Image:Felimare picta B147887.jpg, Head, Lanzarote Image:Felimare picta B147888.jpg, Gill, Lanzarote Image:Felimare picta B148423.jpg, small individual, Lanzarote Image:Regal Sea Goddess Nudibranch.jpg, Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary,

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Image:Felimare picta (Schultz in Philippi, 1836) - branchies.jpg, A close up of the

gills 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 ...

Distribution

The type locality of ''Felimare picta'' is

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, Sicily. ''Felimare picta'' lives on rocky seabeds throughout the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

(Greece), European waters (Spain, Portugal), the Eastern North

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

(Azores, Canary Islands) and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

Description

This nudibranch grows to about long and feeds on sponges of the genus ''

Dysidea ''Dysidea'' is a genus of sponges belonging to the family Dysideidae. The genus has cosmopolitan distribution In biogeography, a cosmopolitan distribution is the range of a taxon that extends across most or all of the surface of the Earth ...

''. They are typically large animals, often reaching 50–80 mm. The background colour is dark blue, almost black in some Atlantic specimens, while in the Mediterranean the oldest specimens are usually discoloured, becoming pale blue, somewhat violet. The colouration changes with growth. The smallest animals () have the edge of the mantle with an irregular width and white colour, except for a yellowish band in the middle of the back, looking similar to '' Felimare gasconi'' or '' Felimare orsinii''. They also have blackish, rounded spots scattered along the inner side of the edge. At the edge is already yellow in front of the rhinophores and behind the gill, there are still white areas between these areas and the mid-lateral. Between the edge of the mantle becomes totally yellow. The yellow colouration of the dorsum develops from three more or less discontinuous lines that end in the branchial orifice, without forming a circle around it, with only the middle line extending behind the gill. At the head the two lateral lines completely surround the

rhinophore A rhinophore is one of a pair of Chemoreceptor, chemosensory club-shaped, rod-shaped or ear-like structures which are the most prominent part of the external head anatomy in sea slugs, Marine (ocean), marine gastropod opisthobranch mollusks suc ...

orifices of the adults but do not form a closed ring in the youngest ones; in all cases they tend to extend ahead of the rhinophores. In the

Azorean The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two Autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaro ...

specimens there are no orange continuous lines on the back, only spots; slightly aligned or irregularly distributed. In all cases, the Azores animals have a spotted design, those from the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

have lines and spots, while those from

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

have the intermediate situation. As the size of the animals increases, the dorsal lines become fragmented, increasing in number and a greater number of yellow spots appear between them, sometimes forming irregular circles. The edge of the mantle is also pigmented, so in large animals the yellow pigment can form on the back a cloud of yellow spots, leaving only remnants of the original lines on the branchial sheath and in front of and behind the rhinophores, although these may also disappear. On the side of the foot there is a more or less intense yellow line and numerous spots and circles whose number increases with the size of the animal. The smaller animals present a simple line, under which there is already at 15 mm a second dashed line of elongated spots. In the anterior part of the foot there is a yellow or orange line. The rhinophores are uniformly coloured, dark blue in the Atlantic and violet blue in the Mediterranean. The

are dark blue with a yellow rachis. In Mediterranean animals, the external aspect of this spine usually has two convergent lines at the apex, while in the Atlantic it is uniform. The largest number of gills observed was 12 in animals greater than ; frequently in large animals the apex of the gills is bifurcated and even branched. At the usual size of adults of other species, , ''Felimare picta'' already has 7 gill leaves. This species presents defensive

gland A gland is a Cell (biology), cell or an Organ (biology), organ in an animal's body that produces and secretes different substances that the organism needs, either into the bloodstream or into a body cavity or outer surface. A gland may also funct ...

ular formations at the edge of the mantle; the most developed are located at the level of the rhinophores and in the lateral and posterior gill areas, although they are found all along the edge of the mantle, except for the middle area of the body. In animals of there are 4-5 glands on the sides of the rhinophores and 6-7 behind the gill, there are also some white spots in the middle of the edge that have a similar appearance. In the specimens, between 5 and 12 mantle glands can be counted on the sides of the rhinophores and from 7 to 24 in the gill area.Debelius, H. & Kuiter, R.H. (2007) ''Nudibranchs of the world''. ConchBooks, Frankfurt, 360 pp. page(s): 113.

Habitat

Minimum recorded depth is and maximum recorded depth is .Welch J. J. (2010). "The "Island Rule" and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". '' PLoS ONE'' 5(1): e8776. .

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1135977 Chromodorididae Gastropods described in 1836