Fowlerina zetesios Pelseneer, 1906
Overview
This is a naked pelagic snail, up to 0.9 cm long, with a mainly transparent body showing the visceral mass through the body wall. The shape is rounded oval. The lateral footlobes are large, the posterior one is small. It hunts shelled pteropods as food, and lives in the N-Atlantic and Mediterranean in the upper water layers (Fowlerina zetesios 2).
Taxonomic Description
Body pointed posteriorly, visceral mass not reaching the posterior body pole. The wings are well developed, broad. No lateral or posterior gills present. The skin is pigmented. The head parts are short, with two clear anterior tentacles (Fowlerina zetesios cranial). The posterior footlobe is pointed, the lateral lobes are rounded and implanted anteriorly. There is one pair of buccal cones (of the same structure as in Clione) beset with numerous papillae. The proboscis is as long as wide. The radula formula varies between 4-1-4 and 6-1-6, there are up to 12 transverse rows. The median plate is saw-like without cusp but finely dentated (Fowlerina zetesios radula). The hook sacs are rather shallow and each contains about short 15 hooks. The jaw consists of about 18 juxtaposed spines. The number of teeth and especially the number of laterals is strongly dependent on age.
Body length up to 9 mm.
Juveniles
A special description is not available.
Reproduction
This species is a protandric hermaphrodite.
Ecology
The species is a carnivore.
Distribution
It occurs in the NW-Atlantic and Mediterranean where it gives a typical example of a distribution around the Atlanto-Mediterranean centre, see the Fowlerina zetesios map.
Types
Fowlerina zetesios Pelseneer, 1906: 149, pl. 12, figs. 53-60.
Types: the 7 types among which 2 juveniles are not found in BMNH.
Type locality: Gulf of Biscay. Coll.: CRHE stat. 34a, 301, 36a, 36b, 36h, 361.