#felimare

[wikipediapictures]

Felimare

[eurodiverslanzarote]

When you come diving with us at Lanzarote you cannot miss the common but very pretty Dorid Nudibranch (Felimare picta). 🐌 They are a pretty large nudibranch growing to around 13cm! They feed on sponges.

[crochetbabe]

California Blue Chromodorid 

Felimare californiensis

This spotted sea slug plush is now up in my shop! 

[todropscience]

This is the flamant Sechuran Desert Nudibranch (Felimare sechurana), a recent described new species of seaslug from the Sechuran desert coastline of North Perú.

- Illescas peninsula in northwestern Peru, where the new species was discovered. Photograph Yuri Hooker.

Previously mistaken with the California blue dorid (Felimare californiensis), a genetic and morfometric study found out it was a complete new species. The genetic difference between these two sea slug, could be the result of dispersal of members of an ancestral population across the tropical eastern Pacific during the repeated periods of glaciation during the Pleistocene (approximately 1 - 2 million years ago), followed by isolation.

Nudibranchs, often casually called sea slugs, are marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage. Are found worldwide, and play a fundamental role as biological controllers of corals, anemones, hydrozoans and marine sponges.

Photographs by Yuri Hooker

Reference (Open Access): Hoover et al. 2017. Integrative taxonomy of the Felimare californiensis and F. ghiselini species complex (Nudibranchia: Chromodorididae), with description of a new species from Peru.  Journal of Molluscan Studies

[eurodiverslanzarote]

This is the "Felimare fontandraui" one of the more rare species of Felimare that you can find here at Lanzarote. 🐌

Until 2012 they were known as Hypselodoris.

[dendroica]

Felimare villafranca (by Joao Pedro Silva)