''Sclerodoris prea'' 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 dorid

nudibranch Nudibranchs () are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have been given colourful nicknames to mat ...

, shell-less

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 * ...

opisthobranch Opisthobranchs () is now an informal name for a large and diverse group of specialized complex gastropods which used to be united in the subclass Opisthobranchia. That taxon is no longer considered to represent a monophyletic grouping. Euopis ...

gastropod mollusc in the family

Discodorididae Discodorididae is a taxonomic family of sea slugs, specifically dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Doridoidea.Bouchet, P. (2011). Discodorididae. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.ma ...

.Rosenberg, G. (2015). Sclerodoris prea. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=533411 on 2016-05-12

Distribution

The distribution of ''Sclerodoris prea'' includes Florida, Venezuela, Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados and Panama.

Description

The body is oval and

mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...

is rigid. Dorsum is covered with numerous

caryophyllidia Caryophyllidia are an anatomical feature of the external dorsal surface of dorid sea slugs. Caryophyllidia are sensory tubercle In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty o ...

. Larger tubercles are arranged in two rows along the visceral hump, with a longitudinal depression in the center.

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 elongate, gill is composed of multipinnate branchial leaves. Background color is cream-brown with numerous dark brown spots. Black patches are present along the center of the visceral hump. Rhinophores are cream with dark spots and gill is gray with opaque white spots. The maximum recorded body length is 40 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 1 m. Maximum recorded depth is 3 m. It was found under rocks in Panama. This species probably 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 ...

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. Discodorididae Gastropods described in 1967 Taxa named by Eveline Du Bois-Reymond Marcus Taxa named by Ernst Marcus (zoologist) {{Discodorididae-stub