Melibe viridis | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Melibe viridis, anterior end at the front with the large rounded oral hood | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Order: | Nudibranchia |
Suborder: | Cladobranchia |
Family: | Tethydidae |
Genus: | Melibe |
Species: | M. viridis |
Binomial name | |
Melibe viridis (Kelaart, 1858) | |
Synonyms [1] | |
Melibe viridis is a species of sea slug, a nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Tethydidae. [4]
This species occurs in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Andaman Sea off Phuket, off Mozambique and off Indonesia. Its habitat is sandy and muddy areas between 3 m and 15 m deep.
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2012) |
The body reaches a length of 140 mm. Like some other nudibranch species, M. viridis has an oral veil that it uses to trap prey. [5] [6] [7] This species has a particular morphology that easily distinguishes it from other nudibranchs. The body is elongated, beige to brown in color. The Melibe has a number of pairs of ceratas along the body, each of which acts as a gill. The ceratas are often darker in color than the body, sometimes with an orange apical part, their size decreasing towards the anterior part.