Doto dunnei Lemche, 1976

Description

A small dotid nudibranch reaching 13–25 mm in length. The body is translucent white, heavily mottled with red-brown to black streaks and patches on the dorsum and flanks. Each ceras has six to seven concentric rings of rounded tubercles; each tubercle bears a dark red to black spherical pigment at its tip together with a few white granules. Irregular dark red-to-black spots also lie between the tubercles. Distinct pseudobranchs are present at the medial base of each ceras.

Distribution

Originally described from material in the British Isles. Subsequently recorded across the north-east Atlantic, including Ireland, the central North Sea, the Netherlands, and the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

Etymology

The specific epithet dunnei honours James Dunne, a marine biologist at the University of Galway, Ireland.

Remarks

A specialist on the plumulariid hydroid Kirchenpaueria pinnata. It lives on this hydroid (which has a white stem) and does not feed on the similar-looking Aglaophenia pluma (brown stem) — a feature that separates it from its close relative D. koenneckeri. Recent molecular work has shown that D. dunnei and D. millbayana are genetically very close and may be conspecific.

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References

• Doto dunnei n. sp., Lemche H. (1976). New British species of Doto Oken, 1815 (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 56: 691-706.