Convoluta convoluta

Convoluta convoluta is a small acoel in the family Convolutidae. Native to the Baltic Sea, it invaded the Gulf of Maine in the late 1990s.^[2]

Convoluta convoluta
C. convoluta with a coin 19 mm in diameter
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Xenacoelomorpha
Order:	Acoela
Family:	Convolutidae
Genus:	Convoluta
Species:	C. convoluta
Binomial name
Convoluta convoluta Peter Christian Abildgaard, 1806. In: O.F. Müller, Zoologia Danica, 4.
Synonyms[1]
List Convoluta albicincta Schultze, 1851 Convoluta armata Graff, 1874 Convoluta diesingii Schmidt, 1852 Convoluta haustrum Dalyell, 1853 Convoluta infundibulum Schmidt, 1861 Convoluta johnstoni Diesing, 1862 Convoluta paradoxa Ørsted, 1843 Monotus albicinctus (Schultze, 1849) Monotus diesingi Schmidt, 1861 Monotus johnstoni Diesing, 1862 (nomen nudum) Monotus paradoxa Claperede, 1861 Planaria convoluta Abildgaard, 1806

Diet and symbiosis

It consumes juvenile settling mussels and harpacticoid copepods.^[3] It also engages in a symbiosis with a diatom of the genus Lichmophora,^[4] which has also invaded the Gulf of Maine.

Impact and ecology in the Gulf of Maine

In the Gulf of Maine, the impact of this species appears minimal as the habitat is presumably saturated with food, and the species is ultimately self-limited by species competition.^[5] It also appears limited to wave-protected habitats, where it prefers filamentous algae.^[5] In 2001, it occurred in densities of up to 19 per square centimeter.^[2]