(Cuvier, 1804)

Description:
This distinctive and common species may reach 55 mm in length and is soft and velvety to the touch. The ample mantle is covered with small, glistening, uniform, spiculose tubercles of the caryophyllidia type, each of which has a distinctive, retractile, central, finger-like papilla (J. tomentosa). The mantle colour gives good camouflage while on or near encrusting sponges; it is sandy brown, yellow, orange or grey-white. A fairly constant feature is the presence of an approximately paired series of dark brown blotches down the sides of the dorsum. Specimens from the west of Ireland may lack these spots (the variety lemchei ). The margins of the rhinophore pits are slightly raised and crenulated. There are up to seventeen tripinnate gills; the gill pocket, when the gills are fully extended, is elevated and forms a short, cylindrical, vase-like base for the gill circlet. The head bears slender, digitiform oral tentacles. The propodium is bilaminate, the anterior lamina notched in the midline (J. tomentosa-photo).

Habitat:
On British shores, this species feeds chiefly upon the encrusting siliceous sponges Halichondria panacea and Haliclona spp. , to 400 m.

Distribution:
This species is common from Norway to the Mediterranean Sea (Adriatic) (Distr. J. tomentosa).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Gastropoda
Subclass Opisthobranchia
Order Nudibranchia
Suborder Doridina
Family Kentrodorididae
Genus Jorunna
Species Jorunna tomentosa

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Jorunna tomentosa (Cuvier, 1804)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Doris tomentosa Cuvier, 1804
Doris johnstoni Alder & Hancock, 1845
Doris philippii Weinkauff, 1873
Jorunna lemchei Marcus Ev., 1976
Jorunna luisae Marcus Ev., 1976
Doris obvelata sensu Johnston, 1838 non Müller O.F., 1776
Jorunna tomentosa (Cuvier, 1804): Picton, 1995

Hayward, P.J., Wigham, G.D. & N. Yonow, 1990. Mollusca I: Polyplacophora, Scaphopoda, and Gastropoda. In: The Marine Fauna of the British Isles and North-West Europe. (ed. P.J. Hayward & J.S. Ryland). Clarendon Press, Oxford: 628-730.

Seaward, D.R., 1990. Distribution of the marine molluscs of north west Europe. Nature Conservancy Council.

Thompson, T.E. & G.H. Brown, 1976/1984. Biology of Opisthobranch Molluscs, volume I and II. Ray Society. London.

Thompson, T.E., 1988. Molluscs: Benthic Opisthobranchs (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Synopses of the British fauna (NS), 8: 1-356.

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