Felimare californiensis

Felimare californiensis, common name the California blue dorid, is a species of colourful sea slug or dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Chromodorididae that eats dysideid sponges.^[1][2]

California blue dorid
Santa Cruz Island, South California
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Nudibranchia
Family:	Chromodorididae
Genus:	Felimare
Species:	F. californiensis
Binomial name
Felimare californiensis (Bergh, 1879)
Synonyms[1]
Chromodoris californiensis Bergh, 1879 (basionym) Chromodoris calensis Bergh, 1879 Chromodoris glauca Bergh, 1879 Chromodoris universitatis Cockerell, 1901 Hypselodoris californiensis (Bergh, 1879) Hypselodoris ghiselini Bertsch, 1978

Distribution

This nudibranch is found in the Eastern Pacific Ocean along the Californian coast from Monterey Bay through Baja California.^[3] It became regionally extinct in the northern part of its range, disappearing completely from California by 1984. It reappeared beginning in 2003 and is now found in a few isolated places in California.^[4] It has been shown to be synonymous with Felimare ghiselini.^[5]

Description

Felimare californiensis has a blue mantle and foot with moderately large yellow-orange spots. The body grows to a length of 90 mm.^[6][7][8]

References

1. Bouchet, P. (2012). Felimare californiensis. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2012-05-11.
2. Johnson R.F. & Gosliner T.M. (2012) Traditional taxonomic groupings mask evolutionary history: A molecular phylogeny and new classification of the chromodorid nudibranchs. PLoS ONE 7(4): e33479
3. Rudman, W.B., 2000 (October 13) Hypselodoris californiensis (Bergh, 1879). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.
4. Goddard, Jeffrey H. R., Maria C. Schaefer, Craig Hoover, Ángel Valdés, 2013. Regional extinction of a conspicuous dorid nudibranch (Mollusca: Gastropoda) in California, Marine Biology, 160(6):1497-1510
5. Hoover C.A., Padula V., Schrödl M., Hooker Y. & Valdés Á. (2017). Integrative taxonomy of the Felimare californiensis and F. ghiselini species complex (Nudibranchia: Chromodorididae), with description of a new species from Peru. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 83(4): 461-475.
6. Bertsch H. (1977) The Chromodoridinae nudibranchs from the Pacific coast of America.- Part I. Investigative methods and supra-specific taxonomy. The Veliger 20(2): 107-118
7. Debelius, H. & Kuiter, R.H. (2007) Nudibranchs of the world. ConchBooks, Frankfurt, 360 pp. ISBN 978-3-939767-06-0 page(s): 108
8. Valdés, Á. & Goddard, J., 2013. Felimare californiensis Miller, M. ed., The slug site, accessed 2018-12-30.

External links

• Photos of Felimare californiensis on Sealife Collection