Tenellia adspersa

• Main Authors: Salvador, Xavier, Fernández-Vilert, Robert, Moles, Juan
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Nudibranchia; Trinchesiidae; Tenellia; Tenellia adspersa; Pacific; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6771983; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6771983

Tenellia adspersa (Nordmann, 1845) (Figure 4 (g)) Material examined Port de Blanes (Spain), 41°40 ʹ 25.5”N, 2°47 ʹ 48.6”E, 21 January 2019, 0.1 m depth, 1 spc., adults, L = 7 mm. External morphology Body elongate, narrow, background colour black. Rhinophores smooth; oral veil very well developed and without oral tentacles. Cerata lateral, elongated; tip swollen. Ecology A single specimen was found in a mass of hydrozoans in a floating dock with other sea slugs. Distribution North-east Atlantic (OBIS 2021); Pacific North American coast (iNaturalist.org 2021; OBIS 2021); Portugal (Encarnação et al. 2020); Spain: Canary Islands, Atlantic Andalusian coast, Galicia, Levantine coast (Cervera et al. 2004), Catalonia (this study). Remarks This species has a widespread and cosmopolitan distribution (Roginskaya 1970), being found in oceanic and brackish waters (Thompson and Brown 1984). Tenellia adspersa can be differentiated from conspecifics by having an oral veil connecting the oral tentacles and the cerata are clustered (Evertsen et al. 2004). Typically, the colour of the body and cerata varies from black to creamy with their diet (authors pers. obs.). Encarnação et al. (2020) found this species associated with the invasive hydrozoan Cordylophora caspia (Pallas, 1771) on artificial structures. Genus Trinchesia Er. Ihering, 1879 Published as part of Salvador, Xavier, Fernández-Vilert, Robert & Moles, Juan, 2022, Sea slug night fever: 39 new records of elusive heterobranchs in the western Mediterranean (Mollusca: Gastropoda), pp. 265-310 in Journal of Natural History 56 (5 - 8) on page 287, DOI:10.1080/00222933.2022.2040630, http://zenodo.org/record/6758438