Amanda armata

{{Short description|Species of gastropod}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Taxobox

| name= Night sky nudibranch

| image =

| image_caption =

| regnum = Animalia

| phylum = Mollusca

| classis = Gastropoda

| unranked_superfamilia = clade Heterobranchia

clade Euthyneura

clade Nudipleura

clade Nudibranchia

clade Dexiarchia

clade Cladobranchia

clade Aeolidida

| superfamilia = Aeolidioidea

| familia = Facelinidae

| subfamilia = Crateninae

| genus = Amanda

| species = A. armata

| binomial = Amanda armata

| binomial_authority = Macnae, 1954MacNae, William. 1954. [http://content.ajarchive.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/03040798&CISOPTR=914&REC=1 On some eolidacean nudibranchiate molluscs from South Africa.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151225152348/http://content.ajarchive.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=%2F03040798&CISOPTR=914&REC=1 |date=2015-12-25 }} Annals of the Natal Museum 13(1):1-50, pls. 1-2.

}}

Amanda armata, the night sky nudibranch, is a species of sea slug, specifically an aeolid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Facelinidae.Sartori, André F. (2014). [http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=715760 Amanda armata Macnae, 1954.] Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2015-02-27

Distribution

This species is endemic to South Africa, having only been found around the coast on both sides of the Cape Peninsula, intertidally to about 15 m.Gosliner, T.M. 1987. Nudibranchs of Southern Africa {{ISBN|0-930118-13-8}}

Description

The night sky nudibranch grows to between 10 and 20 mm in total length. It is a slender, pale-bodied nudibranch with groups of brown cerata having large white spots running down the length of the body. Its rhinophores are annulate, and there is a pair of elongated oral tentacles with white blotches.Zsilavecz, G. 2007. Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay. {{ISBN|0-620-38054-3}}

Ecology

The food and egg mass of this nudibranch are unknown.

References

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