Aiteng ater

Aiteng ater
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Acochlidiacea[1]
clade Hedylopsacea[1]
Family: Aitengidae
Swennen & Buatip, 2009[2]
Genus: Aiteng
Swennen & Buatip, 2009[2]
Species: A. ater
Binomial name
Aiteng ater
Swennen & Buatip, 2009[2]

Aiteng ater is a species of sea slug, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Aitengidae.[2]

The specific name ater is from Latin language and means black, in reference to the appearance of the slug on the mud.[2]

Aiteng ater was chosen by the International Institute for Species Exploration of Arizona State University to be one of the "Top 10 New Species described in 2009".[3]

Distribution

The distribution of Aiteng ater includes Thailand. The type locality is 8°29'18" N, 100°10'55" E, Amphoe Pak Phanang, Pak Phanang Bay, Gulf of Thailand.[2]

Description

The size of the body is 8–12 mm.[2] The shape of the body is elongate, but broad.[2] The color of the slug is from grey to black.[2] Eyes are the only externally clearly visible feature on its head.

Aiteng ater has unusual combination of morphological characters:

This species lacks several acochlidian characteristics:

Aiteng ater has a notum with a free margin.[2] However, in the absence of a separated visceral hump Aiteng ater is able to retract its head under frontal part of the notum.[1]

Ecology

Aiteng ater is an amphibious species which lives in mangrove forests in the intertidal zone, on the mud.[2] It lives "amphibiously" and tolerates marine to brackish waters, but there are no observations of these animals truly leaving the water.[1][2]

Aiteng ater feeds on insects, (is insectivorous).[2] In the laboratory it has been observed to eat pupae of beetles (Coleoptera), pupae of Lepidoptera, imagos of mosquitos and larvae of ants.[2]

Inside the bodies of Aiteng ater there were found to be white elongated endoparasites; these are as yet unstudied.[2] However the "parasites" described for Aiteng ater might represent spicules instead,[1] because the presence of spicules is confirmed for undescribed species Aitengidae sp. from Japan.[1]

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text from the reference.[1]

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Jörger K. M., Stöger I., Kano Y., Fukuda H., Knebelsberger T. & Schrödl M. (2010). "On the origin of Acochlidia and other enigmatic euthyneuran gastropods, with implications for the systematics of Heterobranchia". BMC Evolutionary Biology 10: 323. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-323.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Swennen C. & Buatip S. "Aiteng ater, new genus, new species, an amphibious and insectivorous sea slug that is difficult to classify [Mollusca: Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia: Sacoglossa(?): Aitengidae, new family]". The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 57(2): 495–500. PDF.
  3. "Top 10 New Species – 2010" ."Top 10 – 2010 Bug-eating Slug". accessed 29 November 2010.
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