Flabellina affinis
(Gmelin, 1791)

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Flabellinidae

DISTRIBUTION

Mediterranean, West Africa (Ghana).

PHOTO

Both animals photographed at Baleares, Menorca, Punta Prima, August 1989. LOWER LEFT: showing mating pair. LOWER RIGHT: showing ridges on rhinophores. PHOTOS: Daniel Geiger.

Grows to about 50mm long. Feeds on the hydroid Eudendrium.

A very similarly coloured species, Flabellina ischitana, has long been confused with Flabellina affinis. The differences between the two were enumerated by Hirano & Thonpson (1990) and more recently Cervera, Lopez-Gonzalez & Garcia-Gomez (1998). Essentially in Flabellina ischitana the ceratal surface is translucent, without violet colouration, while in Flabellina affinis there is an opaque violet zone, obscuring the digestive gland, just under the subapical white ring .

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 1999 (July 6) Flabellina affinis (Gmelin, 1791). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/flabaffi

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