Cymbulia peronii

Cymbulia peronii
A shell sample
"glass slipper"
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Clade:	Euopisthobranchia
Order:	Pteropoda
Family:	Cymbuliidae
Genus:	Cymbulia
Species:	C. peronii
Binomial name
Cymbulia peronii Blainville, 1818

Cymbulia peronii is a species of pteropod. It is a pellagic gastropod mollusk. Specifically, it is a sea butterfly part of the Cymbulioidea superfamily.

Name

Cymbulia derives from the Latin cymbula, meaning “small boat,” while peronii honors François Péron (1775–1810), a French naturalist who, after being wounded and imprisoned during the wars against Prussia, studied medicine and natural history and later served as a ship’s doctor aboard Le Géographe on the 1800–1804 expedition to Australia, collaborating extensively with Charles-Alexandre Lesueur.

Illustration from the University of Amsterdam Archives

Distribution

The species inhabits waters concentrating around the extreme south-east United States, the Balearic Islands of Spain, Svalbard, and the offshores of Namibia, sometimes down to about 2,000 m (6,560 ft) depth, carried by currents. It can withstand temperatures of 13–27 °C (55–81 °F).

Anatomy

It reaches about 60–65 mm (2.4–2.6 in) in length and has a translucent, bluish body with two wing-like parapods used for slow movement. During development it retains a transparent, cartilaginous internal shell (pseudoconch) with five dentate ridges that resembles a “glass slipper” or gelatinous crystal-like structure often found washed up on beaches after the animal’s death, sometimes called a "venus' hoof".

Alimentation

Cymbulia peronii often captures prey by having its oral organs open while drifting, and feeds on phytoplankton, mucus, diatoms and other chromists. It is a passive predator, and utilizes hair-like tentacles to sense and detect nearby prey.

Reproduction

Reproduction and breeding takes place temporally from June to August. The animals are protandrous hermaphrodites, meaning male characteristics develop first, with individuals becoming female as they age; this is known as successive hermaphroditism. Reproduction takes place in the planktonic environment through the release of gametes and the development of veliger larvae (gastropod larvae).