Shallow water sea slugs (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) from the northwestern coast of the Sea of Japan, north of Peter the Great Bay, Russia

A. V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia
Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.2590v1
Subject Areas
Biodiversity, Marine Biology, Taxonomy, Zoology
Keywords
Opisthobranchia, Sacoglossa, Thecosomata, fauna, Nudibranchia, Cadlina olgae, Cephalaspidea, Sea of Japan, biogeography
Copyright
© 2016 Chichvarkhin
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Chichvarkhin A. 2016. Shallow water sea slugs (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) from the northwestern coast of the Sea of Japan, north of Peter the Great Bay, Russia. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2590v1

Abstract

The coast of northern Primorye region, north of Peter the Great Bay has been sparsely studied in regards to its molluscan fauna, with just a few works reviewing the distribution of local mollusks. This work presents a survey of the shallow water heterobranch sea slugs currently occurring around Kievka Bay to Oprichnik Bay, Russia. Thirty-eight species of sea slugs were found in this study and the new species Cadlina olgae sp. nov., described herein. Most (24) of the species occurring in the area have widespread ranges in the northern Pacific Ocean. Eight species are endemic for the Sea of Japan and the adjacent part of the Sea of Okhotsk. Seven others also occur in northern Atlantic and Arctic waters. Thirteen species not known from Peter the Great Bay but known from adjacent northern Pacific waters. The finding of a previously undescribed species emphasizes the need for further surveys, particularly in subtidal and deeper waters, in order to improve the knowledge on this neglected fauna.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.