''Euselenops luniceps'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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 pleurobranchomorph

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

in the family

Pleurobranchaeidae The Pleurobranchaeidae are a taxonomic family of sea slugs, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Pleurobranchomorpha The Pleurobranchidae are a taxonomic family of sea slugs, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Pleurobranchomorpha. C ...

.Bouchet, P. (2015)
''Euselenops luniceps'' (Cuvier, 1816).
In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2015-10-19

''Euselenops luniceps'' is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus ''Euselenops'' and ''Euselenops luniceps'' is the only species in the genus ''Euselenops''. The

radula The radula (, ; plural radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by molluscs for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food ...

of this species was studied by Thompson & Bebbington (1973), but they did not publish a description or an image of it.

Distribution

This species is widespread in the

Indo-West Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region.Rudman, W.B., 1999 (December 1
''Euselenops luniceps'' (Cuvier, 1817).
nSea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.

References

Cuvier G. (1817) ''Le règne animal distribué d'après son organisation, pour servir de base à l'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction à l'anatomie comparée.'' Tome 1, 540 pp.; Tome 2, 528 pp.; Tome 3, 653 pp.; Tome 4, 255 pp., 15 pl. Deterville, Paris.

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q5414258 Pleurobranchaeidae Taxa named by Georges Cuvier