Discodoris spp - west Atlantic warm water

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Dorididae

PHOTO

West Palm Beach, Florida, USA., 12 feet of water, 3 inches long. February, 2001. Photo: Anne DuPont

Unidentified species from the Caribbean and surrounding regions.

Marcus & Marcus (1967) describe a number of new species of Discodoris and dorids with a simiar external appearance, and review many others. Unfortunately the information on the external colour of the living animals is not good. Eveline Marcus (1977) lists 8 species of Discodoris from the Caribbean region, though I have no idea how many of those are valid species or even species of Discodoris.

Two reported most frequently are Discodoris evelinae Marcus, 1955 and Discodoris pusae Marcus, 1955. Both are reported to swim and autotomise the mantle. D. evelinae is reported to have penial spines while D. pusae does not. Much further work by resident workers will be needed before this group of species in the Caribbean can be confidently identified.

References:
• Marcus, Er (1955) Opisthobranchia from Brazil. Boletim da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciencias e Letras. Universidade de Sao Paulo, Zoologia, 20: 89-261. (Pls. 1-30)
• Marcus, Er. & Marcus, Ev. (1967) American opisthobranch mollusks. Part 1, Tropical American opisthobranchs. Studies Tropical Oceanography, Miami, 6(1-2): 1-137. (Figs 1-150, Pl.1, figs 1-9)
• Marcus, Ev (1977) An annotated checklist of the western Atlantic warm water opisthobranchs. J. Moll. Stud. (Suppl. 4): 1-23.
• Thompson, T.E. (1980) Jamaican opisthobranch molluscs: II. J. Moll. Stud., 46(1): 74-99.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2001 (March 7) Discodoris spp - west Atlantic warm water [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/disccari

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