Tritonia hamnerorum
| Tritonia hamnerorum | |
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| Tritonia hamnerorum on substrate with egg mass | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Nudipleura clade Nudibranchia clade Dexiarchia clade Cladobranchia subclade Dendronotida |
| Superfamily: | Tritonioidea |
| Family: | Tritoniidae |
| Genus: | Tritonia |
| Species: | T. hamnerorum |
| Binomial name | |
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Tritonia hamnerorum Gosliner & Ghiselin, 1987 |
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Tritonia hamnerorum is a species of dendronotid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tritoniidae.
Tritonia hamnerorum is found in the Caribbean area with its range extending from the Gulf of Mexico to Curaçao and the Cayman Islands. The distribution of Tritonia hamnerorum includes Florida, Mexico, Belize, Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Panama.
The shape of the body elongate and narrow. Rhinophoral sheaths are elevated with an irregular edge.Cerata are short and branched. Edge of the oral veil is with relatively long appendages. Rhinophores ar long and branched. Background color is translucent gray with a series of irregular, longitudinal, thin white lines that run along the length of the dorsum. Its colour, pink or pale lavender, matches the colour of its host sea fan, Gorgonia ventalina. There are about twenty thin white stripes running the length of the body. There are series of nine, sparsely pinnate, gills down each side of the body.Tritonia hamnerorum is up to 15 millimetres (0.59 in) long.
It is found in the shallow water and reef habitats as its host Gorgonia ventalina. Minimum recorded depth is 2 m. Maximum recorded depth is 4 m.
Tritonia hamnerorum seems to feed exclusively on Gorgonia ventalina and extensive searches failed to locate any individuals on other parts of the reef, on mangroves or in seagrass beds. Gorgonia ventalina contains secondary metabolites including one, "julieannafuran", which is distasteful to predators. Tritonia hamnerorum seems to be unaffected by this and sequesters the compound, accumulating it in its tissues. This in turn makes the nudibranch distasteful to predatory fish, such as the bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum), which avoid consuming this species. This species reportedly feeds on the octocorals Gorgonia ventalina and Gorgonia flabellum.
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