Tenellia adspersa, common name

Common name

A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...

 the miniature aeolis, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of very small sea slug

Slug

Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell...

, an aolid nudibranch

Nudibranch

A nudibranch is a member of what is now a taxonomic clade, and what was previously a suborder, of soft-bodied, marine gastropod mollusks which shed their shell after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms...

, a marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 gastropod mollusk in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Tergipedidae

Tergipedidae

Tergipedidae is a family of seaslugs, aeolid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Nudibranchia .- Taxonomy :...

.

In Britain this solitary species is referred to as the lagoon sea slug.

Description

The color of this nudibranch is generally pale yellow to light brown, with black speckles. The length is up to 8 mm.

Distribution

The indigenous distribution of Tenellia adspersa is the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Caspian Sea.

This species is fully protected in the United Kingdom under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981

Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom and was implemented to comply with the Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds...

 since 1992.

The species is introduced in:

• Chesapeake Bay
  Chesapeake Bay
  The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
  
  , Virginia;
• Massachusetts
  Massachusetts
  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
  
  
• San Francisco Bay
  San Francisco Bay
  San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
  
  , Elkhorn Slough
  Elkhorn Slough
  Elkhorn Slough is a tidal slough and estuary on Monterey Bay in Monterey County, California. The community of Moss Landing and the huge Moss Landing Power Plant are located at the mouth of the slough on the bay....
  
  , and Long Beach, California
  Long Beach, California
  Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
  
  ;
• Coos Bay
  Coos Bay
  Coos Bay is an S-shaped inlet where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, approximately 10 miles long and two miles wide, on the Pacific Ocean coast of southwestern Oregon in the United States. The estuary is situated south of the Salmon River. The city of Coos Bay, once named Marshfield, was...
  
  , Oregon.

Habitat

This small sea slug is found in coastal intertidal and shallow sublittoral zones, and also found in estuaries. It prefers small rocks to sea grass bottoms and occurs on man-made substrate as well. It prefers sheltered, low wave action waters. Minimum recorded depth is 0 m. Maximum recorded depth is 0 m.

It crawls along bottom for mobility.

Life cycle

Females produce up to 100 eggs. Larvae are pelagic. They are sexually mature at 20 days old. Life span is less than one year usually.

Feeding habits

It is known to rapidly devour hydroid

Hydroid

-Marine biology:Hydroids are a life stage for most animals of class Hydrozoa, small predators related to jellyfish.-Botany:In mosses, hydroids form the innermost layer of the stem of long, colourless, thin walled cells of small diameter.The cells are dead and lack protoplasm.They function as water...

 colonies. Tenellia adspersa is a carnivore

Carnivore

A carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging...

 feeding primarily on hydroids such as Cordylophora caspia.