Paedoclione
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Paedoclione doliiformis is a species of sea angel, a small floating sea slug, a pelagic marine gastropod mollusk in the family Clionidae.
Paedoclione doliiformis is the only species in the genus Paedoclione.[1]
The generic name is a reference to the paedomorphic habit of this genus, which retains many larval features throughout its life.[2]
Paedoclione doliiformis was originally described by Charles Haskell Danforth in 1907.[3] It was not collected by zoologists for the next 61 years.[4] It was rediscovered in 1968 by Lalli (1972).[4]
Distribution
The type locality of Paedoclione doliiformis is Casco Bay, Portland, Maine.[3]
The distribution includes St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, the Gulf of Maine[2][4] and possibly elsewhere.
Description
Paedoclione doliiformis retains juvenile (larval) physical characteristics for the whole of its life.[4] This is called neoteny (a kind of pedomorphosis).[4]
The body length is up to 1.5 mm.[1] Paedoclione doliiformis has no shell.[1]
It is a gelatinous, mostly transparent pteropod, and it only has a shell in its embryonic stage.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
The orange visceral sac is confined to the anterior part.
Life cycle
Mating is carried out ventrally for mutual fertilization. The following spring, this results in a free-floating, gelatinous egg mass.
Eggs hatch after three days, and the shell is retained until the 11th day.[2]
Feeding habits
Paedoclione doliiformis feeds exclusively on Limacina helicina and on Limacina retroversa, but solely on juveniles with shells smaller than 1 mm.[5] Its abundance is closely linked to that of its prey.[2]
References
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- ↑ a b c "Genus Paedoclione". Marine Species Identification Portal, accessed 4 February 2011.
- ↑ a b c d Lalli C. M. & Conover R. J. (1973). "Reproduction and development of Paedoclione doliiformis, and a comparison with Clione limacina (Opisthobranchia: Gymnosomata)". Marine Biology 19(1): 13–22. Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers"..
- ↑ a b Cite error: Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".Script error: No such module "Namespace detect".
- ↑ a b c d e Lalli C. M. (1972). "Food and feeding in Paedoclione doliiformis Danforth, a neotenous gymnosomatous pteropod". Biological Bulletin 143(2): 392-402, 4 figs. abstract and PDF.
- ↑ Lalli C. M. & Gilmer R. W. (1989). Pelagic Snails. The biology of holoplanktonic gastropod molluscs. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. page 185, 188.
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