Pneumodermopsis (Pneumodermopsis) oligocotyla Massy, 1917
Overview
This is a small, naked pelagic snail, up to 0.5 cm long, with a mainly transparent body the reddish brown of the visceral mass is seen through the body wall. The skin has purple and black chromatophores. There is a median sucker arm (though not mentioned in original description) and two lateral suckers are found on the buccal wall. The posterior gill is absent (Pneumodermopsis oligocotyla). The posterior footlobe is long. It lives in the NE-Atlantic Ocean.
Taxonomic Description
Body narrow with two ciliated bands (in the type specimen). Median foot tubercle invisible, posterior footlobe moderately long. Gills were not described. For Pneumodermopsis oligocotyla only this original illustration after Massy, with the median radula teeth, is known. On the ventral wall of the buccal cavity are two extremely large suckers with short, thick stalks. The radula formula is 6-1-6. The median plate is tricuspoid though the median cusp is extremely small. The lateral teeth are long, broadly based. The jaw is similar in Schizobrachium. The hooks are short, only three to four times longer than the lateral teeth, in each sac there are about 40. Skin unpigmented, proboscis transparent with skin glands forming raised white spots.
Maximum body length is 5 mm.
Juveniles
A special description is not available.
Reproduction
This species is a protandric hermaphrodite.
Ecology
This species is a carnivore.
Distribution
This species was only found once in the centre NE-Atlantic Ocean, see the Pneumodermopsis oligocotyla map.
Types
Pneumodermopsis oligocotyla Massy, 1917: 234, pl. 8, fig. I.
Types: the two spec. are not found in BMNH.
Type locality: 54°57'N 10°51'W, 51°54'N11°54'W. Coll.: CHCE, stat. 197, stat. 302.