Cerberilla tanna from Gulf of Mexico

February 11, 2004
From: Kelly Hooper


I am not sure if you will be able to help me but I work with a fisheries monitoring program in NW Florida and lately we caught a few nudibranchs that I have been unable to identify. They were caught in trawls at depths between 2.6 and 4.1 m. The bottom in this area I believe is sand. Species were caught on Jan. 8 and Jan. 12, 2004. The area is the Apalachicola Bay, an estuary protected by barrier islands. I have pictures of two species.

I think this one is a species of Cerberilla. It was between 15 and 20 mm. long. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Kelly Hooper

kelly.hooper@fwc.state.fl.us

Hooper. K., 2004 (Feb 11) Cerberilla tanna from Gulf of Mexico. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12080

Dear Kelly,
This is a species of Cerberilla and I am pretty sure it is the species named by Marcus as Cerberilla tanna. We have some doubts over the identity of that species because the original description was based on a preserved animal so fitting that description to a live animal is going to be problematic. At the moment we have two species of Cerberilla reported from the Caribbean and one name [see earlier messages #9877, #9858, #9868].

I think your animal and Linda Ianiello's [#9868] are the same species. There is the start of a yellow patch in fromt of the rhinophores, and there is an opaque white border to the foot as in your animal. This species best fits the description of the preserved specimen of Cerberilla tanna - "dirty yellow with an orange-brown spot on the outer surface of many, not all, cerata under the cnidosac."

The blue species [#9858] is most probably a distinct, and unnamed species. I will move it to a separate page as Cerberilla sp. 7.

Best wishes
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2004 (Feb 11). Comment on Cerberilla tanna from Gulf of Mexico by Kelly Hooper. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12080

Factsheet

Cerberilla tanna

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