Pseudunela marteli
| Pseudunela marteli | |
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| A live Pseudunela marteli. dg - digestive gland, oo - oocyte. | |
| Scientific classification | |
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| Species: | P. marteli
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| Binomial name | |
| Pseudunela marteli Neusser, Jörger & Schrödl, 2011[2]
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Pseudunela marteli is a species of sea slug, an acochlidian, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Pseudunelidae.
The specific name marteli is in honour of author's "big-hearted friend and colleague" biologist Martin “Martl” Heß from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, because the species has a large heart-bulb.[2]
Distribution
[edit]Pseudunela marteli is known from Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands and Oyster Island, Vanuatu.[2] The type locality is beach of “Art Gallery”, Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.[2]
Description
[edit]External morphology and anatomy of Pseudunela marteli is the same as in Pseudunela viatoris with the following exceptions:[2] Colour of digestive gland is greenish or orange-brownish.[2] Eyes (30–35 μm) are pigmented and well visible externally.[2] Foot length is up to half of the visceral hump.[2] Subepidermal spicules are more abundant in cephalic tentacles, foot and visceral hump.[2]
digestive system: the radula formula is 57–59×1.1.?; rhachidian tooth with 3–4 denticles per side.[2]
reproductive system: the hollow curved penial stylet measures 130 μm in length, the stylet of basal finger is 30 μm long.[2] The ampulla is sac-like; allosperm receptacles are absent in the examined specimen.[2] The albumen and mucous glands are tubular; the membrane gland is sac-like.[2]
lt – labial tentacle,
rh – rhinophore,
ey – eye,
hb – heart bulb,
f – foot,
vh – visceral hump.
Ecology
[edit]Pseudunela marteli is a minute species that lives in the spaces between sand grains in saltwater habitats, and it is thus considered to be a mesopsammic, marine interstitial animal that is part of the meiofauna of marine sands.[2]
References
[edit]This article incorporates CC-BY-2.5 text from the reference[2]
- ^ Schrödl M. & Neusser T. P. (2010). "Towards a phylogeny and evolution of Acochlidia (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158: 124-154. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00544.x.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Neusser T. P., Jörger K. M. & Schrödl M. (2011). "Cryptic Species in Tropic Sands – Interactive 3D Anatomy, Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Meiofaunal Pseudunelidae (Gastropoda, Acochlidia)". PLoS ONE 6(8): e23313. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023313.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Pseudunela marteli at Wikimedia Commons
