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- ›Katharina
Black Leather Chiton
Katharina tunicata
Katharina tunicata , commonly known as the black Katy chiton, black leather chiton, black chiton, leather chiton, or Kasuqix in the indigenous Aleut language, is a species of chiton in the family Mopaliidae. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Katharina.
From the article Katharina tunicata on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Capable of growing up to 12 cm, the animal is generally described as being football-shaped with a black leathery girdle in which are embedded eight protective plates. The parts of the plates that are visible are sometimes (but not always) diamond-shaped in outline. The underside of the animal is dull orange or yellow.
Range & habitat
Its distribution ranges from Kamchatka, Russia through the Aleutian Islands to southern California. However, modern, accurate surveys do not exist.
Wikipedia: “Distribution”
What it does
Like other chitons, it is a slow moving grazer that consumes several species of brown and red algae including kelps, sea lettuce, and encrusting diatoms. They're also known to eat sponges, tiny barnacles, spirobid polychaetes, and bryozoans. Their predators include sea urchins, leather stars, black oystercatchers, glaucous-winged gulls, and humans.
Wikipedia: “Feeding habits”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Katharina tunicata in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 47632.