Doto amyra, or the hammerhead doto, is a species of very small or minute sea slug, a nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Dotidae.[2]
This species occurs from Alaska to Baja California, Mexico.
This nudibranch reaches a maximum size of 14 mm, but commonly it is under 10 mm in adult size.[3]
The body is colourless, but the cerata are coloured due to the digestive glands inside them. The colour of the digestive gland can be creamy yellow to orange-red to brown, depending on the colour of the hydroids that an individual specimen has been eating.[4] Compared with Doto kya and Doto columbiana this species lacks any dark pigment on the body.[5][6]
This nudibranch feeds on hydroids. It has been reported apparently feeding on a variety of species including Garveia sp., Bougainvilliidae, Abietinaria spp., Sertulariidae as well as a plumulariid hydroid.[7] This may be evidence of a species complex rather than a single species.[8] It in unusual in having a form of development where the eggs are large compared with most Doto species and therefore larvae which settle after only a few days in the plankton.[9]
Doto amyra, or the hammerhead doto, is a species of very small or minute sea slug, a nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Dotidae.
Doto amyra in a tide pool in Central California. The photographer's fingertips on the left give an indication of the minute size of this specimen.
