Glaucus atlanticus

Glaucus atlanticus

Glaucus atlanticus ( German: Blue Ocean Snail or Tern ) is a nudibranch of the family Glaucidae in the subordination of the Nudibranch ( Nudibranchia ), who lives on the sea and pelagic cnidarians eats.

Features

Your body has lateral limbs like protuberances that serve the buoyancy. At the end of these excesses are, in turn, in tufts arranged appendages, called Cerata and lead to the excesses of the midgut gland. It is 3-8 inches tall.

Nutrition

The snails feed on sailing and siphonophores ( genus Velella, Physalia and Porpita ). The stinging cells of the prey can be stored in the Cerata and serve the snails as protection against pests. It is unknown how the nematocysts are prevented from exploding while the jellyfish are eaten.

Occurrence and life

The marine slug Glaucus atlanticus pelagic in warm and temperate seas. Regions where this slug is found, are the eastern and southern coasts of South Africa, European waters, the east coast of Australia and Mozambique. It drives the belly up, with the help of gas bubbles on the water or attaches itself to driving Tange, it belongs to the so conceptually Pleuston. Glaucus atlanticus is three to four inches long.

Life cycle

Like other Nudibranches Glaucus atlanticus is a hermaphrodite. The penis is provided with a Chitinstachel. The female genital opening is on the belly right. The 60 to 75 microns wide and 75 to 97 microns long eggs are stitched in straight, up to 17.5 mm long strings to the remains of meals. At 19 ° C, the segmentation begins after a few hours. After 48 to 60 hours a trochophora and after three days a veliger with shell, which leaves the Eischnur forms. 11 days after hatching to form the first turns of the shell.

With the metamorphosis of the shell is lost, and there is a shell-less snail thread.

System

Glaucus atlanticus Forster, 1777, together with the smaller sister species Glaucus marginatus ( Bergh, 1860), original name Glaucilla marginata Bergh, in 1860, the family Glaucidae. Traditionally, the two genera Glaucus Forster, 1777 and Glaucilla Bergh, 1860 monotypic, ie they contain only one of the two sister species mentioned. Ángel Valdés and Orso Angulo Campillo make 2004, the two species in a genus Glaucus, which now includes two types ie.