Elysia ornata
Elysia ornata (Swainson, 1840)
- order Sacoglossa
- Plakobranchoidea
- Plakobranchidae
- genus Elysia
Common Names
Ornate elysia (English)
Overview
Biology
The animal is usually a translucent green color with a black parapodial margin and a submarginal yellow or orange band. There are black tips on the rhinophores. There are also numerous black and white dots all over the body. It reaches 37 mm in length (Valdés et al., Caribbean Sea Slugs, 2006).
Rights holder(s): Vendetti, Jann - Comment (0)
Ecology and Distribution
Associations
Found feeding on Bryopsis plumosa (Jensen, 1981).
Rights holder(s): Vendetti, Jann - Comment (0)
Dispersal
Larval development is planktotrophic.
Rights holder(s): Krug, Patrick - Comment (0)
Distribution
The type locality is the West Indies, and range is the Caribbean. All Indo-Pacific species currently termed "ornata" are a complex of cryptic species in the Elysia marginata complex (Krug et al., in press). See "cf. marginata" pages for provisional descriptions, photographic vouchers and links to DNA barcodes of species in the ornata-marginata complex.
Rights holder(s): Vendetti, Jann; Krug, Patrick - Comment (0)