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Atagema rugosa
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Nudibranchia
Family:	Discodorididae
Genus:	Atagema
Species:	A. rugosa
Binomial name
Atagema rugosa Pruvot-Fol, 1951

Atagema rugosa, the rugby-ball dorid, is a species of dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Discodorididae.

Distribution

This species was described from Cap l'Abeille, near Banyuls-sur-Mer, France. It has been reported from the bay of Gallipoli, Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea and around the southern African coast on the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula in 10–15 m of water. It is probable that the species known by this name in South Africa is actually a distinct species.

Description

Atagema rugosa is described as a beige animal, darker in the lower parts of the mantle. Its tubercles are arranged in crests forming a network. It has five gills, with the three posterior held almost horizontal and the two anterior very small. The South African rugby-ball dorid is a small white nudibranch with black spots, a warty skin and a distinct longitudinal ridge down the middle of its back. It has eight gills arranged around the anus and its rhinophores are perfoliate. It can reach a total length of 30 mm.

Ecology

The rugby-ball dorid feeds on sponges.

References

1. ^ Pruvot-Fol A. (1951). Etudes des nudibranches de la Méditerranée 2. Archives de Zoologie Expérimentale et Générale 88: 1-80
2. Perrone, A. S. 1983. Descrizione de un raro nudibranco mediterraneo: Atagema rugosa (Pruvot-Fol, 1951). Bollettino Malacologico (Pubblicazione Mensile Edita dalla Societa Italiana di Malacologia) 19(1-4):49-56.
3. Gosliner, T.M. 1987. Nudibranchs of Southern Africa ISBN 0-930118-13-8
4. Zsilavecz, G. 2007. Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay. ISBN 0-620-38054-3

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• Discodorididae
• Gastropods described in 1951
• Taxa named by Alice Pruvot-Fol
• Discodorididae stubs