page_title: Peltodoris atromaculata
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Peltodoris atromaculata / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Peltodoris atromaculata Bergh, 1905 (Discodoris atromaculata) (Anthobranchia) from the Mediterranean, attached to the roof of a cave between Parazoanthus.
context_page_description: Peltodoris atromaculata, more commonly known as the dotted sea slug or sea cow, is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Discodorididae. It dwells in salt water up to the depth of 40m. It is exclusively found in precorralligene and coralligene communities and is very common in such communities.
  In the wild, Peltodoris is most abundant between June and September. Adults individuals can be found throughout the year, and two separate generations can coexist at the same time.
  While Peltodoris is commonly filed under the genus Discodoris, some studies suggest that there may be a large enough difference in their morphology for it to be classified as a separate genus.
context_section_description: Peltodoris is characterized by brown spots distributed randomly on its white mantle, each spot has a border of a darker brown color. The spots are generally darkest around the center of the mantle. Different populations exhibit different amounts of brown spots, and there is a general pattern of increasing coverage from west to east.
caption: Peltodoris atromaculata between Parazoanthus
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.1", "Image DateTime": "2008:12:03 21:28:03", "Image ExifOffset": "146", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "390", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "295"}