Paedoclione
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Paedoclione doliiformis is a species of sea angel, a small floating sea slug, a pelagic marine gastropod mollusk in the family Clionidae.
Paedoclione doliiformis is the only species in the genus Paedoclione.<ref name="identification">"Genus Paedoclione". Marine Species Identification Portal, accessed 4 February 2011.</ref>
The generic name is a reference to the paedomorphic habit of this genus, which retains many larval features throughout its life.<ref name="Lalli 1973">Lalli C. M. & Conover R. J. (1973). "Reproduction and development of Paedoclione doliiformis, and a comparison with Clione limacina (Opisthobranchia: Gymnosomata)". Marine Biology 19(1): 13–22. Template:Doi.</ref>
Paedoclione doliiformis was originally described by Charles Haskell Danforth in 1907.<ref name="Danforth 1907"/> It was not collected by zoologists for the next 61 years.<ref name="Lalli 1972"/> It was rediscovered in 1968 by Lalli (1972).<ref name="Lalli 1972">Lalli C. M. (1972). "Food and feeding in Paedoclione doliiformis Danforth, a neotenous gymnosomatous pteropod". Biological Bulletin 143(2): 392-402, 4 figs. abstract and PDF.</ref>
Distribution
The type locality of Paedoclione doliiformis is Casco Bay, Portland, Maine.<ref name="Danforth 1907"/>
The distribution includes St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, the Gulf of Maine<ref name="Lalli 1973"/><ref name="Lalli 1972"/> and possibly elsewhere.
Description
Paedoclione doliiformis retains juvenile (larval) physical characteristics for the whole of its life.<ref name="Lalli 1972"/> This is called neoteny (a kind of pedomorphosis).<ref name="Lalli 1972"/>
The body length is up to 1.5 mm.<ref name="identification"/> Paedoclione doliiformis has no shell.<ref name="identification"/>
It is a gelatinous, mostly transparent pteropod, and it only has a shell in its embryonic stage.Template:Citation needed
The orange visceral sac is confined to the anterior part.
Life cycle
Mating is carried out ventrally for mutual fertilization. The following spring, this results in a free-floating, gelatinous egg mass.
Eggs hatch after three days, and the shell is retained until the 11th day.<ref name="Lalli 1973"/>
Feeding habits
Paedoclione doliiformis feeds exclusively on Limacina helicina and on Limacina retroversa, but solely on juveniles with shells smaller than 1 mm.<ref name="Lalli 1989">Lalli C. M. & Gilmer R. W. (1989). Pelagic Snails. The biology of holoplanktonic gastropod molluscs. Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. page 185, 188.</ref> Its abundance is closely linked to that of its prey.<ref name="Lalli 1973"/>