Family
Tylodinid sea slugs
Tylodinidae
- Species in the gallery
- 1
- Genera
- 1
Back to superfamily Umbrella slugsBack to order Umbrella slugs & reduced internal shellBack to the gallery
Description
Tylodinidae is a family of sidegill slugs in the order Umbraculida (superfamily Umbraculoidea), not nudibranchs; WoRMS currently recognises only the genus Tylodina. Tylodina perversa is a well-known Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic species, and other species occur in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere. Tylodina feed on sponges, and T. perversa specialises on yellow Aplysina sponges, taking up their pigments and defensive bromotyrosine compounds.
Identification
Tylodina has a flattened, limpet-like external shell, often with a hairy periostracum, sitting on top of the body, which is usually the same colour as its host sponge (bright yellow in T. perversa). The rhinophores are rolled and there is a single feather-like gill on the right side beneath the shell edge. It differs from Umbraculum, the other umbraculid, which has a huge tuberculate body with a small shell perched on top, and from true limpets by its soft slug body and rhinophores.
Genera
1 species
Sources (3)
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