Scientific name: Favorinus branchialis
(Rathke, 1806)
Common Name:
Area type: None in particular
Depth: Down to 30m
Measures: Up to 25mm
How does it look like?
Their body is transparent white coloured, with a kind of opaque white ribbon drawn on the back, forming an elongated circle around the pericardium. The dorsal apices (cerata) are from a mixed white colour, but this depends also on the color of their food, due to the digestive tract inside the cerata. There are authors who say that they present a bag full of urticant cells (cnidosac) on the tips of the cerata.
Where does it live?
They have been found on the British Isles, Cape Verde, the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
How does it feed?
This species feeds on the eggs of other nudibranchs, so they are found on places with high density of other nudibranchs.
How do they reproduce?
All animals have both sexes (hermaphrodites). Usually they reproduce with other individuals, sticking a nail-shaped penis through thir couples skin. Rarely selfreproduction. The eggs of this species are thin and rolled up to a thread like a hair.
Is a confusion possible?
There is no information about a possible confusion with other species.
Curiosities
· Searching inside the eggs of other nudibranchs we can find Favorinus branchialis perfectly hidden, due to their colour which fastly changes to the colour of their food
· They are one of the fastest nudibranch species
Taxonomy
Order: Nudibranchia, Suborder: Aeolidina, Family: Facelinidae
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