Common Clione

Common Clione

Clione limacina
Scale 4 Diat: carnivore , Hierachy 2

4 POINTS

 Cliona limacina has a MOVE of 2.

• Clione limacina can live for up to one year without food.

 

Cold
Clione limacina, common name Naked Sea Butterfly or Common Clione, is a sea angel found from the surface to 350 m[citation needed] in depth. […] Sea angels are gelatinous, mostly transparent and very small, with the largest species (Clione limacina) reaching 5 cm. Clione limacina is a polar species; those found in warmer waters are […] read more
Clione limacina, common name Naked Sea Butterfly or Common Clione, is a sea angel found from the surface to 350 m[citation needed] in depth. […] Sea angels are gelatinous, mostly transparent and very small, with the largest species (Clione limacina) reaching 5 cm. Clione limacina is a polar species; those found in warmer waters are far smaller. Some species of sea angel feed exclusively on sea butterflies; the angels have terminal mouths with the radula common to mollusks, and tentacles to grasp their prey, sometimes with suckers similar to cephalopods. Their “wings” allow sea angels to swim much faster than the larger (usually fused) wings of sea butterflies.

Gymnosomes slowly beat their wing-like parapodia[4] in a rowing motion[5] to propel their “perfectly streamlined”[5] bodies through the upper 20 metres of the water column. Although usually slow-moving, beating their wings once or twice per second, they are capable of bursts of speed when they need to pursue their prey, calling a separate suite of muscles into action to obtain the higher beat frequency.[4]

The IPCC reports that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing acidification of the oceans, which could eliminate pteropods from the Southern Ocean and cause serious repercussions throughout the food chain.[6]

FUN FACT!
Pokémon water-types Phione and Manaphy are based on the sea angel.

(From Wikipedia, May 3, 2011)

Barrel-shaped body with paddle-like lateral wings; No external gills; Transparent body with orange-red colouration in the tail and horn-like mouth organs; Tentacles and hooks deployed during feeding; Reddish-brown visceral mass is seen through the body wall; Several subspecies and forms recognized, with differing shell shape and differeing polar/subpolar distribution.

An active swimmer while hunting for its shelled pteropod prey, primarily Limacina helicina; Feeding apparatus consists of 3 pairs of buccal cones (finger-like tentacles), 2 clusters of long hooks, and a toothed radula (a chain-saw like tongue) all normally hidden inside the head and body; Feeding apparatus is everted (pushed out) during feeding to extract the prey from their shells; A well-fed animal has a large dark gut.

(From EOL, 21 May 2011)