''Geitodoris heathi'',
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...
"Heath's dorid", 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 ...
of colorful
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, a shell-less
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
Dorididae
Sea lemon is a loosely applied common name for a group of medium-sized to large shell-less colorful sea slugs or nudibranchs, specifically dorid nudibranchs in the taxonomic family Dorididae and other closely related families. These are marine g ...
.
[Dayrat B. 2010. A monographic revision of discodorid sea slugs (Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia, Nudibranchia, Doridina). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Series 4, vol. 61, suppl. I, 1-403, 382 figs., available online at Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=579047 on 2012-03-01][Bouchet, P. (2015). Geitodoris heathi (MacFarland, 1905). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=579047 on 2016-05-21]
Distribution
This species of dorid nudibranch lives in the eastern
Pacific, from
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
to
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
.
Description
This nudibranch grows to be about 45 mm, or almost 2 inches in length. It can be white or yellow or even a sort of pinkish color, and sometimes has small dark spots.
Image:Geitodoris heathi.jpg, ''Geitodoris heathi'', a mating pair
Image:Geitodoris heathi 1.jpg, ''Geitodoris heathi''
File:Nudibranchia (825453159).jpg, Geitodoris heathi
File:Geitodoris heathi from Pillar Point, California.jpg, Geitodoris heathi from Pillar Point, California
Notes
References
* http://www.marinespecies.org/ search term Geitodoris accessed 4 March 2010
Books
* Behrens David W., 1980, ''Pacific Coast Nudibranchs: a guide to the opisthobranchs of the northeastern Pacific'', Sea Challenger Books, California
External links
Dorididae
Gastropods described in 1905
{{Discodorididae-stub