Aegires punctilucens

Aegires punctilucens is a species of sea slug. It is a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Aegiridae.^[2]

Aegires punctilucens
The nudibranch Aegires punctilucens, Strangford Lough, Co Down, Northern Ireland.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Nudibranchia
Family:	Aegiridae
Genus:	Aegires
Species:	A. punctilucens
Binomial name
Aegires punctilucens (d'Orbigny, 1837)[1]

Distribution

This species was described from Brest, Brittany, France. It has been reported from the NE Atlantic from Norway, Great Britain and Ireland from Shetland south to Cornwall and from Northern France, Portugal and Spain to Greece in the Mediterranean Sea.^[3] Reports from Japan and Australia are likely to be cryptic species.^[4]

Description

The maximum recorded body length is 12 mm.^[5]

Feeding habits

Aegires punctilucens feeds on the calcareous sponge Leucosolenia botryoides.^[3]