Embletonia pulchra
(Alder et Hancock, 1844)

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Embletoniidae

DISTRIBUTION

Distribution. Mediterranean (Schmekel, Portmann, 1982), Black Sea (Perejaslavtseva, 1891), Spain (Cervera et al., 2004), Portugal (Nobre, 1931), Atlantic coast of France (Labbé, 1923), Belgium and Holland (Maitland, 1897), British Islands (Thompson, Brown, 1984), Denmark (Jensen, Knudsen 1995), Germany (Helgoland, Marcus, Marcus, 1958), west Sweden coast (Odhner, 1907), Southern Norway (Loyning, 1927; Odhner, 1939), Barents Sea (Martynov et al., 2006).

PHOTO

A single specimen (7.5 mm length, mature) was found in August of 2005 in middle intertidal of Yarnyshnaya Inlet, Barents Sea on coarse shelly gravel. Photos: Tatiana Korshunova.

This species is adapted for dwelling within coarse sand and gravel. The body is very narrow and elongated, but considerably shorter than in the tropical member of the genus, E. gracilis. There are no oral tentacles, instead there are a pair of flattened anterior lobes. The rhinophores are quite short and thin. Up to 10 elongated but somewhat swollen cerata originate from each side of the body. General body colour is yellowish white, with opaque white speckles medially and on the papillae. Colour of the digestive gland diverticulum in the papillae are reported to be from pale yellow to red. The Barents Sea illustrated specimen had yellowish-light brown digestive gland. Although E. pulchra is usually considered to have rounded tips to the cerata, more detailed study shows slightly bilobed tips (photo) probably previously described as pads containing nematocysts (e.g. Marcus & Marcus, 1958).

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Authorship details
Martynov, A., 2007 (May 24) Embletonia pulchra (Alder et Hancock, 1844). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/emblpulc