Felimare californiensis

Felimare californiensis, common name the California blue dorid, is a species of colourful sea slug or dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Chromodorididae that eats dysideid sponges.[1][2]

California blue doris
Santa Cruz Island, South California
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Heterobranchia
Order: Nudibranchia
Suborder: Doridina
Superfamily: Doridoidea
Family: Chromodorididae
Genus: Felimare
Species:
F. californiensis
Binomial name
Felimare californiensis
(Bergh, 1879)
Synonyms[1]
  • Chromodoris californiensis Bergh, 1879 (basionym)
  • Chromodoris calensis Bergh, 1879
  • Chromodoris glauca Bergh, 1879
  • Chromodoris universitatis Cockerell, 1901
  • Hypselodoris californiensis (Bergh, 1879)
  • Hypselodoris ghiselini Bertsch, 1978

Distribution

This nudibranch is found in the Eastern Pacific Ocean along the Californian coast from Monterey Bay through Baja California.[3] It became regionally extinct in the northern part of its range, disappearing completely from California by 1984. It reappeared beginning in 2003 and is now found in a few isolated places in California.[4] It has been shown to be synonymous with Felimare ghiselini.[5]

Description

Felimare californiensis has a blue mantle and foot with moderately large yellow-orange spots. The body grows to a length of 90 mm.[6][7][8]

References
  1. Bouchet, P. (2012). Felimare californiensis. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2012-05-11.
  2. Johnson R.F. & Gosliner T.M. (2012) Traditional taxonomic groupings mask evolutionary history: A molecular phylogeny and new classification of the chromodorid nudibranchs. PLoS ONE 7(4): e33479
  3. Rudman, W.B., 2000 (October 13) Hypselodoris californiensis (Bergh, 1879). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.
  4. Goddard, Jeffrey H. R., Maria C. Schaefer, Craig Hoover, Ángel Valdés, 2013. Regional extinction of a conspicuous dorid nudibranch (Mollusca: Gastropoda) in California, Marine Biology, 160(6):1497-1510
  5. Hoover C.A., Padula V., Schrödl M., Hooker Y. & Valdés Á. (2017). Integrative taxonomy of the Felimare californiensis and F. ghiselini species complex (Nudibranchia: Chromodorididae), with description of a new species from Peru. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 83(4): 461-475.
  6. Bertsch H. (1977) The Chromodoridinae nudibranchs from the Pacific coast of America.- Part I. Investigative methods and supra-specific taxonomy. The Veliger 20(2): 107-118
  7. Debelius, H. & Kuiter, R.H. (2007) Nudibranchs of the world. ConchBooks, Frankfurt, 360 pp. ISBN 978-3-939767-06-0 page(s): 108
  8. Valdés, Á. & Goddard, J., 2013. Felimare californiensis Miller, M. ed., The slug site, accessed 2018-12-30.
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