Clione limacina
| Clione limacina | |
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| Clione limacina | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Euopisthobranchia clade Gymnosomata |
| Superfamily: | Clionoidea |
| Family: | Clionidae |
| Subfamily: | Clioninae |
| Genus: | Clione |
| Species: | C. limacina |
| Binomial name | |
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Clione limacina (Phipps, 1774) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Clione limacina, known as the naked sea butterfly, sea angel, and common clione, is a sea angel (pelagic sea slug) found from the surface to greater than 500 m (1,600 ft) depth. It lives in the Arctic Ocean and cold regions of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. It was first described by Martens in 1676 and became the first gymnosomatous (without a shell) "pteropod" to be described.
Clione limacina is found in cold waters of the Arctic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean. A closely related species, Clione antarctica, is found in Antarctic waters.
There are two subspecies that differentiate in body length. The northern subspecies lives in colder water, matures at 3 cm (1.2 in) and can reach a size of 7–8.5 cm (2.8–3.3 in). The size of the southern subspecies is 1.2 cm (0.47 in).
The neurobiology of this pteropod has been studied in detail.
Clione limacina inhabits both the epipelagic and mesopelagic regions of the water column.
Adults feed in a predator-prey relationship almost exclusively on the sea butterflies of the genus Limacina: on Limacina helicina and on Limacina retroversa. The feeding process of Clione limacina is somewhat extraordinary. The buccal ("mouth") apparatus consists of three pairs of buccal cones. These tentacles grab the shell of Limacina helicina. When the prey is in the right position, with its shell opening facing the radula of Clione limacina, it then grasps the prey with its chitinous hooks, everted from hook sacs. Then it extracts the body completely out of its shell and swallows it whole.
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Wikipedia