Clione limacina (Phipps 1774)

The most common naked pteropod of arctic waters

An active swimmer while hunting for its shelled pteropod prey, primarily Limacina helicina; Feeding apparatus consists of 3 pairs of buccal cones (finger-like tentacles), 2 clusters of long hooks, and a toothed radula (a chain-saw like tongue) all normally hidden inside the head and body; Feeding apparatus is everted (pushed out) during feeding to extract the prey from their shells; A well-feed animal has a large dark gut

Barrel-shaped body with paddle-like lateral wings; No external gills; Transparent body with orange-red colouration in the tail and horn-like mouth organs; Tentacles and hooks deployed during feeding; Reddish-brown visceral mass is seen through the body wall; Several subspecies and forms recognized, with differing shell shape and differeing polar/subpolar distribution

Panarctic, bipolar and subpolar; Epipelagic (shallow dwelling)

protandrous hermaphrodite (males first, females later); mating involves cross-fertilization; 30-40 eggs laid as oblong gelatinous egg strips (1 to 1.2 mm long); Newly hatched larvae have thimble-shaped shells and a ciliated velum aroudn mouth; shell is soon cast off and while changing to adult body form, 2 ciliated rings lost are visible mid-body and near the tail; Generation times thought to be 1 year in the arctic and perhaps 2 per year in the subarctic