Gastropoda |
Nudibranchia |
Facelinidae
Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range
Ecology
Benthic. Subtropical
Mediterranean Sea.
Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Feeds directly on the hydranths of Eudendrium racemosum (Ref. 116462), wherein it's stimulated to feed and prefers hydranths which have captured the plankton, thus ingesting both the plankton and the hydroid polyp---a combination of predation and kleptoparasitism, a type of competition of stealing already captured food items. This combination does not fit into existing classifications, thus called 'kleptopredation.' Despite being an opportunistic predator which uses hydroids to capture prey from the column, hydranth forms only a fraction of its diet by volume. Plankton form at least half of its diet.
Life cycle and mating behavior
Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae
Members of the order Nudibranchia are simultaneous hermaphrodites. Mating behavior: Both individuals darts their penis toward each other to induce one to act as a male and the other as the female. The victorious one to penetrate the body wall is the dominant male. Life cycle: Eggs are deposited on a substratum where they develop and hatch into (planktonic) vestigial veliger larval stage and further grow as adults.
Templado, J. and R. Villanueva. 2010. (Ref. 85339)
IUCN Red List Status
(Ref. 130435: Version 2024-2)
CITES status (Ref. 108899)
Not Evaluated
Not Evaluated
Threat to humans
Harmless
Human uses
| FishSource |
Tools
More information
Trophic EcologyFood itemsDiet compositionFood consumptionFood rationsPredators Population dynamicsGrowth
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance
Life cycleReproductionMaturityFecunditySpawningEggsEgg developmentLarvaeLarval dynamics Human RelatedAquaculture profiles
Stamps, coins, misc.
Internet sources
Estimates based on models