Onchidella marginata
Onchidella marginata | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Order: | Systellommatophora |
Family: | Onchidiidae |
Genus: | Onchidella |
Species: | O. marginata |
Binomial name | |
Onchidella marginata (Couthouy in Gould, 1852) | |
Synonyms[1] | |
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Onchidella marginata is a species of air-breathing sea slug, a shell-less marine pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Onchidiidae.[1]
Description
[edit]O marginata undergoes direct-development.[2]
Distribution
[edit]O. marginata is found in southern Chile, the Falkland Islands, and New Zealand and its subantarctic islands.[2]
Ecology
[edit]O. marginata is associated with the southern bull kelp Durvillaea antarctica. When the holdfasts of the kelp detach from substrates they float and can raft over vast distances.[2] Based on genetic data, the geographically distant populations of O. marginata are estimated to be closely related, and it has been suggested that the dispersal of the species far across the Southern Ocean has been facilitated by rafts of D. antarctica.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Onchidella marginata (Couthouy in Gould, 1852). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 30 September 2010.
- ^ a b c d Cumming, Rebecca A.; Nikula, Raisa; Spencer, Hamish G.; Waters, Jonathan M. (2014). "Transoceanic genetic similarities of kelp-associated sea slug populations: long-distance dispersal via rafting?". Journal of Biogeography. 41: 2357–2370. doi:10.1111/jbi.12376.