''Samla bicolor'' 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 time ...

, an aeolid

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 match, ...

, a marine

heterobranch Heterobranchia, the ''heterobranchs'' (meaning "different-gilled snails"), is a taxonomic clade of snails and slugs, which includes marine, aquatic and terrestrial gastropod mollusks. Heterobranchia is one of the main clades of gastropods. Cur ...

mollusc in the family

Samlidae Samlidae is a taxonomic family of brightly coloured sea slugs, specifically nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as m ...

.Rosenberg, G. (2015)
''Flabellina bicolor'' (Kelaart, 1858).
In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2015-10-25

Distribution

This species was described from Ceylon. It is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific region.Rudman, W.B., 1999 (February 23
''Flabellina bicolor'' (Kelaart, 1858).
n/nowiki> Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. In Hawaii it can be commonly found in Big Island, Maui,

Oahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O� ...

Niihau Niihau ( Hawaiian: ), anglicized as Niihau ( ), is the westernmost main and seventh largest inhabited island in Hawaii. It is southwest of Kauaʻi across the Kaulakahi Channel. Its area is . Several intermittent playa lakes provide wetland ha ...

Laysan Laysan (; haw, italics=no, Kauō ), located northwest of Honolulu at , is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It comprises one land mass of , about in size. It is an atoll of sorts, although the land completely surrounds a shallow c ...

, Midway and

Kure is a port and major shipbuilding city situated on the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan ...

.''Flabellina bicolor'' (Kelaart, 1858)
Seaslugs of Hawaii. Retrieved July 5, 2012

Description

''Samla bicolor'' can grow to a maximum length of 20 mm and has a translucent body and white tips to the oral tentacles. There is an orange band near the tip of the

rhinophore 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 ...

s and on each of the

cerata :''The tortrix moth genus ''Cerata'' is considered a junior synonym of ''Cydia. Cerata, singular ceras, are anatomical structures found externally in nudibranch sea slugs, especially in aeolid nudibranchs, marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks ...

.Gosliner, T. M., & Richard C. Willan. 1991
Review of the Flabellinidae (Nudibranchia: Aeolidacea) from the tropical Indo-Pacific, with the descriptions of five new species.
Veliger 34(2):97-133
page 97
/ref> Animals from different regions show subtle differences in coloration and in the shape of the oral tentacles and may be members of a

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q5456532 Samlidae Gastropods described in 1858