''Melibe viridis'' 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), ...

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 ...

, a

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 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 current power * Marine debris * Marine energy * Marine habitats * Mari ...

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

Tethydidae Tethydidae is a family of dendronotid nudibranch gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Dendronotoidea.Picton, B.; Bouchet, P. (2017). Tethydidae Rafinesque, 1815. In: MolluscaBase (2017). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at htt ...

Distribution

This species occurs in 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 ...

, the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

, the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and the west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated f ...

off Phuket, off

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

and off

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. Its habitat is sandy and muddy areas between 3 m and 15 m deep.

Description

The body reaches a length of 140 mm. Like some other nudibranch species, ''M. viridis'' has an oral veil that it uses to trap prey. This species has a particular morphology that easily distinguishes it from other nudibranchs. The body is elongated, beige to brown in color. The Melibe has a number of pairs of ceratas along the body, each of which acts as a gill. The ceratas are often darker in color than the body, sometimes with an orange apical part, their size decreasing towards the anterior part.

References

* MacNae, W. & M. Kalk (eds) (1958). ''A natural history of Inhaca Island, Mozambique.'' Witwatersrand Univ. Press, Johannesburg. I-iv, 163 pp. * Gosliner T.M. (1987) ''Review of the nudibranch genus Melibe (Opisthobranchia: Dendronotacea) with descriptions of two new species.'' The Veliger 29(4): 400–414 * Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). ''European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification''. Collection Patrimoines Naturels, 50: pp. 180–213 * Streftaris, N.; Zenetos, A.; Papathanassiou, E. (2005). ''Globalisation in marine ecosystems: the story of non-indigenous marine species across European seas.'' Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. Annu. Rev. 43: 419–453
Gosliner T.M. & Smith V.G. (2003) ''Systematic review and phylogenetic analysis of the nudibranch genus Melibe (Opisthobranchia: Dendronotacea) with descriptions of three new species.'' Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 54: 302–356.
* Gosliner T.M., Behrens D.W. & Valdés A. (2008) ''Indo-Pacific nudibranchs and sea slugs.'' Sea Challengers Natural History Books and California Academy of Sciences. 426 pp.

External links

*
''Melibe viridis'' , World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 5 December 2023

''Melibe viridis'' , Sea Slug Forum. Retrieved 5 December 2023

''Melibe japonica'' , Sea Slug Forum. Retrieved 5 December 2023
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Ben G Thomas (Feb 8, 2021) Melibe viridis - Animal of the Week
Youtube video 5:31 Tethydidae Gastropods described in 1858 {{Heterobranchia-stub