''Doris odhneri'' is a species of

sea slug Sea slug is a common name for some marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are sea snails (marine gastropod mollusks) that over evolutionary t ...

, a dorid

nudibranch Nudibranchs () are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have been given colourful nicknames to matc ...

, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Dorididae.Behrens D. W. (2004). "Pacific Coast Nudibranchs, Supplement 2. New species to the Pacific Coast and new information on the oldies". ''Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences'' 55: 11-54. It is known by many common names, such as: giant white nudibranch, giant white dorid, and white-knight nudibranch. It is also often referred to as Odhner's dorid to honor

Nils Hjalmar Odhner Nils Hjalmar Odhner (6 December 1884 – 12 June 1973) was a Swedish zoologist who studied mollusks, a malacologist. He was professor of invertebrate zoology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, and a member of the Royal Swedish Aca ...

, the scientist it is named after.Behrens D. W. (1991). ''Pacific Coast Nudibranchs''.

Description

''Doris odhneri'' is the largest nudibranch on the California coast, measuring up to 20 cm. It is completely white in color with no markings, however anomalies with a yellowish hue have been described in the Puget Sound region. A conspicuous characteristic of this nudibranch is its gill. It is composed of seven fluffy plumes and its

rhinophores A rhinophore is one of a pair of chemosensory club-shaped, rod-shaped or ear-like structures which are the most prominent part of the external head anatomy in sea slugs, marine gastropod opisthobranch mollusks such as the nudibranchs, sea ha ...

have 20 to 24

lamellae Lamella (plural lamellae) means a small plate or flake in Latin, and in English may refer to: Biology * Lamella (mycology), a papery rib beneath a mushroom cap * Lamella (botany) * Lamella (surface anatomy), a plate-like structure in an animal * ...

Life habits

Their diet consists of sponges, mostly ''

Halichondria ''Halichondria'' is a genus of sea sponges belonging to the family Halichondriidae. These are massive, amorphous sponges with clearly separated inner and outer skeletons consisting of bundles of spicules arranged in a seemingly random pattern. ...

.'' It is rarely found in the

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats with var ...

, and is more likely to be found in the

subtidal The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

to 75 ft. Like most nudibranchs, ''Doris odhneri'' is

hermaphroditic In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have separ ...

and mates with the right sides of the body together. Elegant ribbon-like egg masses are laid and attached to hard substrates.Hildering, J. & Miller, G., 2007 (Jul 27
Doris odhneri eggs?.
essage in/nowiki> Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.

Distribution

''Doris odheri'' can be found from Kenai Peninsula, Alaska to Point Loma, California.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10965042 Dorididae Gastropods described in 1966