Species by Order: Thecosomata

Natural History
Cavolinia inflexa

Cavolinia form mucus feeding webs and ingest these webs with their captured prey.  Each of these processes can take between 1-3 minutes.

Clio pyramidata

Known to be an intermediate host for parasitic copepods that eventually infest fish. Several forms exist within the California Current, but here no attempt was made to distinguish them.

Corolla spectabilis

Mucous feeding web can be up to 2 meters in diameter.

Creseis virgula

An escape response is to drop the mucus feeding web and sink with the shell pointed vertically.  Several forms reported; here no attempt is made to distinguish them.

Desmopterus pacificus

Desmopterus papilio is a closely related species in the Pacific, but has longer tentacles than Desmopterus pacificus.

Heliconoides inflatus

Fed upon by the gymnosome Clione limacina, which places the opening of the thecosome Limacina shell up to its mouth and uses hooks to pull out the soft tissue.

Limacina helicina

As in many shell-bearing pteropods, the aragonitic shell is sensitive to changes in ocean pH.