Jorunna spazzola is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusc in the family Discodorididae.Bouchet, P. (2015). Jorunna spazzola (Marcus, 1955). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2015-10-11
Taxonomy It is possibly synonymous with Jorunna luisae.Camacho-García Y. E. & Gosliner T. M. (2008). "Systematic revision of Jorunna Bergh, 1876 (Nudibranchia: Discodorididae) with a morphological phylogenetic analysis". Journal of Molluscan Studies 74: 143-181. .
Camacho-García et al. (2014)Camacho-García Y., Pola M., Carmona L., Padula V., Villani G. & Cervera L. (2014). "Diversity and distribution of the heterobranch sea slug fauna on the Caribbean of Costa Rica". Cah Biol Mar. 55: 109–127. suggested Caribbean animals identified as Jorunna spazzola could constitute a distinct species, because they display external differences with the original description from southern Brazil.
Distribution This species was described from Brazil. The distribution of Jorunna spazzola includes Florida,Jorunna spazzola. Photo A. DuPont at Medslugs.de. Honduras, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cuba, Curaçao, Barbados, Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, Brazil and Panama.
Description The body is oval. The mantle is rigid. Dorsum is flattened and covered with small caryophyllidia. Branchial leaves are very short. Background color is translucent gray with a few darker gray or brown patches over the dorsum. Mantle margin is surrounded by small opaque white glands. Rhinophores and gill are the same color as the rest of the body. It is up to 18 mm long or up to is 36 mm.Welch J. J. (2010). "The “Island Rule” and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". PLoS ONE 5(1): e8776. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008776.
According to Rudman (2008), this species is known mostly from internal characters and needs clarification.Rudman W. B. (2001 September 20). Jorunna cf. spazzola (Marcus, 1955). Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.
Ecology Minimum recorded depth is 0 m. Maximum recorded depth is 1.5 m. It was found under rocks in Panama.
Prey of Jorunna spazzola include sponges of the order Haplosclerida: Callyspongia pallida and Chalinula sp.Belmonte T., Alvim J., Padula V. & Muricy G. (2015). "Spongivory by nudibranchs on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, southeastern Brazil". Spixiana 38(2): 187–195. PDF. It is well camouflaged on its prey. This species is able to quickly change colors as a response to unknown environmental cues.
References This article incorporates Creative Commons (CC-BY-4.0) text from the referenceGoodheart J. A., Ellingson R. A., Vital X. G., Galvão Filho H. C., McCarthy J. B., Medrano S. M., Bhave V. J., García-Méndez K., Jiménez L. M., López G. & Hoover C. A. (2016). "Identification guide to the heterobranch sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Bocas del Toro, Panama". Marine Biodiversity Records 9(1): 56.