Polycera faeroensis

The Faroese Squirrel Snail ( Polycera faeroensis ), called on Faroese Bertákna, is a Hinterkiemerschnecke the group of sea slugs ( nudibranchs ). Making it one of the molluscs ( Mollusca ) and thence to the snails ( Gastropoda ).

• Distribution: Eastern North Atlantic
• Occupied discoveries off following coasts: Faroe Islands, France, Ireland, Channel Islands, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden

In the group of slugs to find the most colorful species of the seas. It is also called butterflies of the ocean. The body of the Faroese Squirrel worm is transparent with bright yellow " croissant " and stains.

A copy of the Faroese Squirrel worm was first found in June 1899 in the deep channels between Nólsoy and Eysturoy in the Faroe Islands. The Danish expert on opisthobranchs, Henning Lemche, described the way in The Zoology of the Faroes in 1929. The specimen was in relatively poor condition, but by the shape and size of the rasp it distinguished itself but as a new way. Subsequent findings have shown that the species is larger than other close relatives, up to 45 mm long compared with 20 to 25 mm of the other species. As a rule, the style is more than eight tentacles on the head, compared to four to six in the closely related Striped Squirrel Snail ( Polycera quadrilineata ).

Faroese word origin

The name Bertákna is made up of an advisory ( = naked gemeingermanisch related to bar cf. barefoot ) and tákn ( = gills and also: Barten, possibly gemeingermanisch related to teeth and / or tackle, tentacles ). So Bertákna says Nudibranch, and that is the correct zoological name for this animal, which is actually a naked opisthobranchs.