Peltodoris atromaculata, Bergh, 1880
Peltodoris atromaculata, more commonly known as the dotted sea slug or sea cow, is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Discodorididae. It dwells in salt water up to the depth of 40m. It is exclusively found in precorralligene and coralligene communities and is very common in such communities.
In the wild, Peltodoris is most abundant between June and September. Adults individuals can be found throughout the year, and two separate generations can coexist at the same time.
While Peltodoris is commonly filed under the genus Discodoris, some studies suggest that there may be a large enough difference in their morphology (e.g. the jaws) for it to be classified as a separate genus.
Peltodoris is characterized by brown spots distributed randomly on its white mantle, each spot has a border of a darker brown color. The spots are generally darkest around the center of the mantle. Different populations exhibit different amounts of brown spots, and there is a general pattern of increasing coverage from west to east.
Dotted sea slugs are found almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea. There has also been a single report of sighting in the Atlantic Ocean from the Bay of Biscay to the Azores.
Peltodoris relies exclusively on the sponges Petrosia ficiforms and Haliclona fulva as its food source, which is detects using chemotaxis. There are no other species know to prey on P. ficiforms and H. fulva, due to the fulvinol-like polyacetylenes produced by the sponges as a secondary metabolite, which are known to be cytotoxic. This lack of competition allows Peltodoris to relatively unrestricted by food availability. While Peltodoris prefers to feed on Haliclona over Petrosia, Petrosia are more numerous leading Peltodoris to feed mainly on Petrosia. In rare occasions, Peltodoris will feed on parts of its own mantle tissue. There are no observed daily and seasonal variation in the feeding habits of Peltodoris.
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