Images of live Philine punctata

Images of the distinctive internal shell of Philine punctata appear in several books and websites, but the only published coloured image I have been able to find of a living animal was painted over 150 years ago by Joshua Alder (figure1). The photographs included here may be of further help in identifying live specimens.

_{figure 1: P. punctata. Illustration from Forbes & Hanley 1848–53, Vol. 1, plate UU. (image: Peter Topley)}

The most complete description I could find of the colour of the living animal is in Forbes and Hanley (vol.3):
“It is of a darker colour than its congeners, being tinged and speckled with reddish brown on a yellowish ground”.

Figure 2 is of P. punctata found under a rock on the shore of Weddel Sound, Orkney in 1975. It was sent to T. E. Thompson who identified it and described its radula (Thompson, 1976).

_{Figure 2: Philine punctata, 4.5 mm, Orkney.}

Figures 4 & 5 are a dorsal view and a partial lateral view of a specimen found in 2010 among organisms scraped from rocks on the shore of the Menai Strait near Penmon, Anglesey.

The Orkney and Penmon specimens both had a light transverse band on the mantle, and Alder’s painting shows a whitish blotch in the same area. There was a tear in the mantle of the Penmon specimen which exposed the shell when found (figure 3), but after a few days in sea water in a refrigerator the tear appeared to have closed (figures 4 & 5).
The abrasion on the shell (figure 6) may be due to this damage.

Identification of this species from British waters should be possible from its body shape and dark colour as the bodies of all other described British Philine are white, whitish, buff or pale yellow (Thompson). Some have tiny brown blotches or specks of brown pigment, but none has the general brown appearance of P. punctata.

_{References
Forbes, E. & Hanley, S. (1848–53) A History of British Mollusca and their Shells. Vols 1–4 London.}

_{Thompson, T.E. (1976) Biology of Opisthobranch Molluscs 1. London.}

_{figure 3: P. punctata, Penmon. Showing exposed shell through a hole in the mantle.}

_{figures 4 & 5: Philine punctata, 5 mm, Penmon, Anglesey.}

_{Identification was confirmed by examination of the shell which had the diagnostic rows of unconnected impressed dots (figure 6, below).}

_{figure 6: Shell of Philine punctata, 1.8 mm, Penmon, Anglesey.}

_{figure 7: P. punctata, 4 mm. Britannia Bridge, Caerns. April 2011.}