Doto escatllari is a species of sea slug, a nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Dotidae.

Doto escatllari
Dorsal view of Doto escatllari on substrate
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Nudibranchia
Suborder: Cladobranchia
Family: Dotidae
Genus: Doto
Species:
D. escatllari
Binomial name
Doto escatllari
Ortea, Moro & Espinosa, 1998[1]

Distribution

edit

This species was first described from the Canary Islands. It has subsequently been reported from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica,[2] Barbados[3] and Panama.[4]

Description

edit

The body is short and narrow.[4] Rhinophores are smooth and with opaque white dots.[4] Rhinophoral sheaths are with small frontal extensions.[4] Cerata are large with rounded tubercles; apical tubercles much larger than the rest.[4] The cerata are translucent blue, and the ceratal tubercles have no dark spots and contain dense concentrations of rounded hyaline glandular structures.[5] Background color is translucent gray with a series of dark brown spots on the dorsum.[4] Cerata are with dark brown branches of the digestive gland and bluish tubercles.[4] This dendronotid nudibranch is translucent white with mid-sized black spots scattered over the top and sides of the body.[5] In the internal base of the ceratal peduncle there is a black mark below the three-lobed transparent pseudobranch.[5]

The maximum recorded body length is 5 mm[4] or 6 mm.[6]

Ecology

edit

Minimum recorded depth is 1 m.[6] Maximum recorded depth is 4 m.[6]

Doto escatllari was found associated with small hydroids[4] of the family Sertulariidae; these are probably its prey.[citation needed]

References

edit

This article incorporates Creative Commons (CC-BY-4.0) text from the reference[4]

  1. ^ Ortea J., Moro L. & Espinosa J. (1998). "El género Doto Oken, 1815 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia) en las Islas Canarias y de Cabo Verde". Avicennia 6/7: 125-136.
  2. ^ Ortea J. (2001). "El género Doto Oken, 1815 (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) en el mer Caribe: Historia natural y descripción de nuevas especies". Avicennia Suppl. 3: 1-46. page 21.
  3. ^ Valdés Á., Hamann J., Behrens D. W. & DuPont A. (2006). Caribbean Sea Slugs. Sea Challengers Natural History Books, Etc., Gig Harbor, Washington, pp. 216-217. ISBN 0-9700574-2-3.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Goodheart 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. doi:10.1186/s41200-016-0048-z
  5. ^ a b c Doto escatllari account at INBio. Species of Costa Rica
  6. ^ a b c 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.