The Frosted Nudibranch
by Elias and Jesse
Common name:Â Frosted Nudibranch, Alabaster Nudibranch, White-lined Dirona
Scientific name:Â Dirona albolineata
Size range:Â up to 180mm (18cm) in length but normally 4cm
Identifying Features:  The most prominent feature of the frosted nudibranchs is the frosty white tips lining the leaf-like cerata on their back. They come in a wide variety of colours, including mauve and peach, but for the most part, they’re a translucent whitish-yellow. The Frosted Nudibranch is known to shed its cerata when stressed so the number of cerata may vary.
Habitat:Â The frosted nudibranch thrives along the shores of Japan, Siberia, and Southern Alaska, to Southern California. It is found intertidally and up to 37m deep.
Prey:Â Most sea slugs have very specific feeding needs, thus making them difficult to keep in aquariums. The frosted nudibranch has powerful jaws enabling it to crack open snail shells. This nudibranch has a vast selection of prey including arborescent and foliose bryozoans, hydroids, small prosobranchs, crustaceans, and ascidians.
Life Cycle:Â Nudibranchs are hermaphrodites. They have both male and female reproductive organs. In most cases, two separate organisms will exchange sperm. But there is a potential for self fertilization. Once the eggs are fertilized, they are laid in large amounts, often very close to a food source in a long ribbon of eggs. Once hatched, they develop into a trochophore larva, and then into a plantonic veliger larva. Eventually they undergo metamorphosis, and become juveniles living on the ocean floor.Â
References
Balanced Environmental. Retrieved January 19, 2012 from http://balanced.ca/hd/nudibranch.html
Goddard, J.H.R., 2000 (June 16) Dirona albolineata MacFarland in Cockerell & Eliot, 1905. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Retrieved January, 2012 from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/diroalbo
Ubeda, J. (1999). Nudibranch Life Cycle. Ehow. Retrieved January 19, 2012 from http://www.ehow.com/about_5479190_nudibranch-life-cycle.html
 (2011). Dirona albolineata. Animal wiki. Retrieved January 19, 2012 from http://linnaeus.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/wiki/index.php/Dirona_albolineata