Pruvot-Fol, 1926
Full name (Van der Spoel et al., 1997): Clione limacina (Phipps, 1774) subsp. limacina (Phipps, 1774) forma filifera Pruvot-Fol, 1926
Description
A naked pelagic snail, up to 1.5 cm long, with a mainly transparent body that only shows orange/red colouration in the tail, tentacles and mouth organs. It is characterised by the very long buccal cones. The wings are very large. The reddish-brown visceral mass occupies about 1/3 of the total body length and is seen through the body wall. It is a rather quick swimmer that hunts shelled pteropods as food. It lives in the N-Atlantic Ocean in the upper water layers where it is rather rare.
This forma is closely related to the forma gracilis. The three footlobes are moderately developed. The wings are very large as in the forma minuta. The buccal cones have filaments 3 to 4 times longer than the buccal cones themselves [C.l.l.filifera-buc], and sometimes a buccal cone has two such filaments. The most ventral cones have no filaments, the median cones have two filaments of different lengths, the dorsal cones have one filament each. The cones are triangular and laterally flattened. The hooks are of different sizes as in the forma limacina. The radula formula is 3-1-3 [C.l.l.filifera-rad].
A description of juveniles is not available.
Size
Maximum body length 15 mm.
Ecology
This form is a carnivore.
Distribution in the North Sea
Northern North Sea
World distribution
This form is found in the N-Atlantic.
[After Van der Spoel et al., 1997]