Armina loveni

(Bergh, 1861)

Description:
This highly distinctive nudibranch may reach 40 mm in length. The ample mantle is brick-red in colour, with up to 50 prominent white longitudinal wrinkles. These wrinkles are irregularly wavy and may in places break up into pustules, especially towards the pale edges of the mantle. The front of the mantle is indented so as to accommodate and protect the longitudinally ridged, pale rhinophores, which are united at the base. A wrinkled accessory caruncle is situated just in front of the rhinophores. The mantle rim contains numerous large defensive glands (brown in preserved animals). Under the mantle rim there are a number of delicate gills and lateral lamellae. The head is large and flattened, produced laterally into blunt tentacles.

Habitat:
A. loveni is always found among beds of Virgularia mirabilis , in mud in sheltered localities. It burrows into soft sediments in search of its cnidarian prey.

Distribution:
From southern Norway to the French Atlantic coast, to 75 m depth (Distr. A. loveni).

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