Paraclione flavescens (Gegenbaur, 1855b)
Overview
This is a naked pelagic snail, up to about 2.3 cm long, with a mainly transparent body, the visceral mass is seen through the body wall, it has large chromatophores in the skin. The shape is elongate oval. The posterior footlobe is long. There are two pairs of buccal cones. It hunts shelled pteropods as food, and lives in the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans in the upper water layers, and probably has a wider distribution than previously reported (Paraclione flavescens).
Taxonomic Description
Body of moderate length, pointed posteriorly. The skin shows numerous chromatophores. The posterior footlobe is long and pointed, lateral footlobes are rather wide and pointed. In some specimens posterior lobes are lacking. There are two pairs of buccal cones, like in Paraclione longicaudata, they are long and beset with papillae. The radula formula is 2-1-2, the median plate is unicuspoid. The hook sacs are shallow, bearing about 60 subequal triangular hooks. This species shows neoteny and the small "young" are usually incorrectly named "C. aurantiaca". Though a real lateral gill is absent, a transparent lacunar spot marks its place.
Body length up to 22 mm.
Juveniles
A special description is not available.
Reproduction
This species is a neotenic, protandric hermaphrodite.
Ecology
This species is a carnivore.
Distribution
It is originally described from the Mediterranean. A specimen in the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra suggests to a wider species range of the species than the Mediterranean. See the Paraclione flavescens map.
Types
Clio flavescens Gegenbaur, 1855: 73.
Types are lost (cf. Pelseneer, 1887a:49).
Type locality: Messina. Coll.: Gegenbaur.