Janthina pallida Thompson, 1840

Worldwide warm seas. Pleustonic floating predator, sometimes attached to the Hydrozoa which it feeds on, more often found on the underside of a bubble-raft it secretes. Synonym: striolata. 300m deep, off the south-eastern coast of Malta. 24mm.

Calambrone beach, Pisa, Toscana, W. Italy. 12mm. The specimen is attached to a Velella velella (Linnaeus, 1758).

Specimen feeding on a Velella, midway between Nice and the Capi Corsu, SW. Ligurian Sea. Original picture provided by J. Renoult for iNaturalist – (CC BY-NC).

As the name suggests, the colour of this species is a pale violet. Specimen from near Atlantic collected on the shore, near Nazaré, Estremadura, central Portugal. 16mm.

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