Scientific name: Limacia clavigera

(Muller, 1776)

Common Name:

Family: Molluscs - Opistobranchs

Area type: Meadow dive, Diving and watching under the stones

Depth: Until 35m

Measures: Up to 20mm

How does it look like?
It’s a nudibranch with a long shaped body. Around the mantle there are several papillas which look like little fingers, curved towards the body center. There’s also a row of them on the center of the body and around the head, always a bit litteler. At the head zone they vary in number between 6 and 8. The nudibranch’s colour is white translucent, with yellow-orange coloured round spots at the end of each papilla. The animal’s tail shows a longitudinal line with the same yellow/orange colour. It achives a maximal size of 2cm.

 
Where does it live?
Normally they can be found on seaweeds, hydroids and on rocks, down to 35 meters deep. This species has been found at the Mediterranean in Spain, France, Italy and Croatia. At the Atlantic it has been described at Morocco, the Azores Islands, Holand and Norway.

How does it feed?
The concrete feeding habits of this nudibranch are not known. They are, but, usually linked to bryozoans of species like Electra pilosa or Membranipora membranacea. This leads to the supposition that they are eaten by them. Other authors link this nudibranch to other genus of bryozoans like Callopora, Cryptosula, Porella or Schizoporella.

How do they reproduce?
Reproduction is supposed to take place in winter, around january, when the biggest specimens are found.

Is a confusion possible?
Little specimens could be missidentified as Polycera quadrilineata. The caracteristic papillas help to recognize them easily.

Curiosities
· Specimens have only been found at the western Mediterranean between november and may. That leads to think that they live, as many other nudibranchs, only one season or year. At other places like the strait of Gibraltar or the British Isles they’ve been found in other periods.

· The name comes from latin: "Limax" which means slug and "claviger" which means mace or stick, a reference to this animal’s caracteristic papillas.

Taxonomy
Filum: Mollusca, Class: Gastropoda, Subclass: Opisthobranchia, Superorder: Heterobranchia, Order: Nudibranchia, Suborder: Doridina, Family: Polyceridae.