''Okenia echinata'' 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 ...

, specifically a

dorid ''Doridacea'' is a taxonomic grouping of dorid nudibranchs, shell-less marine gastropod mollusks.Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.); Frýda J., Hausdorf B., Ponder W., Valdes A. & Warén A. 2005''Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families ...

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

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

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 Goniodorididae.

Distribution

This species was described from

Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while the ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Similar looking animals have been reported from Australia and India.Rudman, W.B., 2004 (December 21
''Okenia echinata'' Baba, 1949.
n/nowiki> Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.

Description

This ''Okenia'' has a broad body and many short, triangular, pointed, lateral papillae. There are scattered, shorter, papillae on the back, between the rhinophores and the gills and in front of the rhinophores. The body is described as uniformly brown with small spots of white pigment. Recent finds from Japan show body colour is variable through red to orange and the papillae have orange tips.

Ecology

The diet of this species is probably a

ctenostome The Ctenostomatida are an order of bryozoans in the class Gymnolaemata. The great majority of ctenostome species are marine, although ''Paludicella'' inhabits freshwater. They are distinguished from their close relatives, the cheilostomes, by t ...

bryozoan.''Okenia echinata''.
At: umiushi-zukan.com.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3881345 Goniodorididae Gastropods described in 1949