Tethys fimbria
Tethys fimbria, 30 m depth, Archi, Reggio Calabria, Italy
The veil worm ( Tethys fimbria ) is a large shell-less snail the Mediterranean from the subordination of Nudibranch, the floating travels near the ground and feeds on crabs.
Features
The veil screw can be 30 cm long. Your body is strongly flattened and the head has a broad funnel-shaped veil ( velum ), which is manned on the edge with numerous Sinnespapillen. The head bears no sensor, and the rhinophores are small and conical. The worm has neither pine nor radula. The back bears two rows of simple sheet-like extensions which easily fall off ( autotomy ) and then move for a while. So they can distract enemies. Next to each extension on the back there are gills. The snail is translucent and has on the back extensions and sometimes on the edge of the foot and the veil black spots.
Dissemination and lifestyle
The veil snail lives in the Mediterranean and along the African and European coast of the Atlantic Ocean from Portugal to the Gulf of Guinea.
Resting preferred the veil screw sandy or muddy substrate at depths of 20 to 150 meters. She moves away free floating.
The veil worm feeds on small crabs, which she captures with her veil.
History of systematics
Carl Linnaeus described 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae a genus Tethys with the two types of Tethys and Tethys limacina leporina. While he does not list sources for the first type, he calls for the second type as the first source Guilelmus Rondeletius, in whose work Libri de Marinis piscibus of 1554 on an image, a sea slug, Aplysia fasciata is obviously the type shown. In the 12th edition of Systema Naturae in 1767 follows an entirely different description for the same generic name, this time the species name Tethys Tethys fimbria and leporina are listed. Linnaeus refers to the 1761 by Johann Baptist Bohadsch shown fimbria and other sources through which both of the described species are identifiable as veil snail, while the image of Rondeletius now the genus Laplysia describes known to previous location in the same plant Aplysia. Linnaeus's descriptions of 1767 formed the basis for the later and still valid use of the generic name Tethys and Aplysia, although it has also been proposals to comply with the first publication. The name Tethys limacina, however, can be clearly assigned to any animal species and is thus a dubious name. 1954 were established by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature Linnaeus descriptions of 1767 as valid, even though the the contradictory descriptions of 1758 are older. Thus, the naturalized scientific name remained. For the veil screw Tethys fimbria is the valid name and Tethys leporina a synonym. 1981 has been set to Tethydidae ( d ) in order to distinguish them from the sponges of the family Tethyidae ( type genus Tethya ), while the generic name of the sea squirts Tethyus is now invalid, the name of the family.