Kingdom Animalia Family Aglajidae Scientific name Navanax inermis Higher classification Navanax | Superfamily Philinoidea Genus Navanax Phylum Mollusca Rank Species | |
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Similar Navanax, Cephalaspidea, Hermissenda crassicornis, Chelidonura, Triopha | ||
Navanax inermis eats hermissenda crassicornis
Navanax inermis, common name the California aglaja, is a species of predatory sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Aglajidae and the order Cephalaspidea, the headshield slugs and bubble snails.
Contents
- Navanax inermis eats hermissenda crassicornis
- Navanax inermis
- Distribution
- Description
- Life habits
- References
It has been suggested that this species should be moved to the genus Aglaja, but the name Navanax is still used in many of the popular works on mollusks.
Navanax is not a nudibranch, even though it somewhat resembles one; it belongs to a more ancient lineage of opisthobranchs called the cephalaspideans or head shield slugs and snails.
Navanax inermis
Distribution
This species occurs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Its range is from Tomales Bay, California, in the north, to Laguna Manuela and to Jalisco in Mexico, in the south, including the Gulf of California.
Description
This species can reach a total length of more than 22 cm. It is the host of the ectoparasitic copepod Anthessius navanacis (Wilson C.B., 1935)
Life habits
Navanax inermis is a voracious predator, feeding on various sea slugs and bubble snails of the order Cephalaspidea, as well as nudibranchs such as Hermissenda crassicornis, Polycera atra, and Dirona picta. It uses chemoreceptors to track the slime trails of prey, and of potential mates.
Like all other Opisthobranchs, it is hermaphroditic.