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Costasiella nonatoi
Costasiella nonatoi is a species of sacoglossan sea slug in the genus Costasiella. It is one of few species in the genus that is not photosynthetic. The description of this species was based on two specimens which were serially sectioned and designated as the holotype. The species was named after Dr. Edmundo Nonato, a professor at the Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo.
From the article Costasiella nonatoi on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Range & habitat
Costasiella nonatoi inhabits the coastal areas of the Caribbean sea and some of the Atlantic Ocean. Individuals can be found off the shores of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Panama, and Curaçao.
Wikipedia: “Geographic range”
What it does
Closely related species, like Costasiella kuroshimae, along with some other Sacoglossan species carry out a process called functional kleptoplasty. This is a process in which the digestion of algal plastids consumed by the organisms is delayed. The retention of the plastids provides nutrition the to gastropods via photosynthesis. Costasiella nonatoi rapidly digests the plastids of the algae it feeds on, therefore not carrying out functional kleptoplasty. Slugs of this species tend to burrow into the thallus of Avrainvillea to feed as well as deposit their egg masses. Costasiella ocellifera, a closely related and visually similar species also resides on this algae, but tends not to burrow within it.
Wikipedia: “Behaviour”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Costasiella nonatoi in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 255204.