Flabellina cavolini (Vérany, 1846)

Description

A medium-sized aeolid about 20 mm in body length, with a slender, translucent white body. The rhinophores and oral tentacles are smooth, the rhinophores slightly the longer of the two. The cerata are arranged in several clusters along each side, with the digestive gland visible through the transparent ceratal wall and ranging in colour from orange to deep red. The ceratal tips bear faintly whitish cnidosacs.

Distribution

The type locality is the Gulf of Genoa and waters off Nice in the north-western Mediterranean (Vérany 1846). The species is recorded across the whole Mediterranean and from the north-eastern Atlantic.

Etymology

The specific epithet cavolini is a patronym honouring the Italian naturalist Filippo Cavolini (1756-1810) of Naples.

Remarks

The species preys on various hydroids and is encountered in shallow temperate to subtropical waters. Externally distinguished from the sympatric Flabellina affinis by its smooth rhinophores (F. affinis has distinctly annulated rhinophores).

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References

• Eolidia cavolini n. sp., Vérany J.B. (1846). Catalogo degli animali invertebrati marini del Golfo di Genova e Nizza. Genova. — Original description of Eolidia cavolini.
• Calmella cavolini (Vérany, 1846) (Fig. 33) (original description in Vérany 1846, detailed description in Schmekel and Portmann 1982), Korshunova T., Martynov A., Bakken T., Evertsen J., Fletcher K., Mudianta I.W., Saito H., Lundin K., Schrödl M. & Picton B. (2017). Polyphyly of the traditional family Flabellinidae affects a major group of Nudibranchia: aeolidacean taxonomic reassessment with descriptions of several new families, genera, and species (Mollusca, Gastropoda). ZooKeys. 717: 1-139. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.717.21885
• Flabellina cavolini (Vérany, 1846), Ekimova, I., Carmona, L., Mikhlina, A. L., Grishina, D., Stanovova, M. V., Schepetov, D. M., Hoover, C., de Souza-Canal, J., Kuznetsov, K. O., & Valdés, Á. (2026). Neither "lumpers" nor "splitters": A global revision of Flabellinidae s.l. nudibranchs (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Nudibranchia). PLoS One. 21(5): e0347759. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347759