Cerberilla incola Burn, 1974

Description

A small aeolid reaching about 10 mm in body length. The cerata bear two longitudinal brown lines — a distinctive diagnostic feature. In juveniles, the lines appear only on the larger cerata, while smaller cerata are uniformly translucent brown. The species spends most of its life buried in sand and is rarely seen alive.

Distribution

Type locality: Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia. Originally known only from southeastern Australia (e.g. Jervis Bay), the species has subsequently been recorded from southern Queensland and Reunion in the Indian Ocean, suggesting a broad Indo-West Pacific distribution. Inhabits sandy bottoms in bays at 8-15 m depth.

Remarks

Members of the genus Cerberilla are sand-burrowing aeolids known to feed on burrowing anthozoans such as cerianthid tube anemones.

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References

• Cerberilla incola sp. nov., Burn R. (1974). Notes on some benthonic opisthobranchs from Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia, 3(1): 43-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00852988.1974.10673877
• Burn. (2015). Nudibranchs and Related Molluscs.