Re: Chromodoris elegantula

June 1, 2005
From: Juan Lucas Cervera

Dear Bill,
This species from Turkey  [message #13885] is not Ch. elegantula but an undescribed species of Chromodoris. More than 15 years ago I remember that Jose Carlos Garcia Gomez, Riccardo Cattaneo-Vietti and Renato Chemello had written a manuscript on the genus Chromodoris in Europe, and they included the redescription of Ch. elegantula and an additional undescribed species that matches the Turkish species externally. Unfortunately, this manuscript has never seen the light for different reasons. I remember that the radular teeth of this unnamed species and Ch. elegantula were very different, and those of Ch. elegantula agreed with the Sordi's 1980 redescription.

It would be great to get new material of this undescribed species that permit to conduct the description of this species.

Regards.
Lucas.

lucas.cervera@uca.es

Cervera, J.L., 2005 (Jun 1) Re: Chromodoris elegantula. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/13925

Dear Lucas,
I have no knowledge of these as living animals but looking at the literature, the animal Sordi (1970) identified as Chromodoris elegantula, with large red patches,  doesn't look very like Philippi's illustration which is of a species with many small red spots [see Fact Sheet]. Perrone (1993) reports on specimens he collected in Malta of both the small-spotted 'form' and the large-spotted  'form' and named the large-spotted form as the subspecies Chromodoris elegantula polychroma  [see message #13915 ]

Unfortunately we haven't much information on the anatomy of either form. The radula is inadequately described by both Sordi and Perrone. If these two are distinct species then I presume the sensible course would be to follow Perrone and identify the small-spotted form as C. elegantula and the large-spotted form as C. polychroma. The Turkish animals are identical to the small-spotted form of Perrone from Malta. Pruvot-Fol (1954) also illustrates a small-spotted form from Villefranche, France and identifies it as C. elegantula.

Or are you saying there is a third colour 'form' which is the true C. elegantula? If so, then we would have to find out if the small-spotted and large-spotted forms of Perrone are the same species or different. If they are the same, then they both would become C. polychroma and a new name is unnecessary. If you are suggesting that C. elegantula is a third colour 'form' do you know if anyone has a colour photo of it? I have searched the literature and the web and can't find anything else from the Mediterranean which comes near to matching Philippi's illustration.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Jun 1). Comment on Re: Chromodoris elegantula by Juan Lucas Cervera. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/13925

Factsheet

Chromodoris elegantula

Related messages

  1. Re: Chromodoris elegantula
    From: Juan Lucas Cervera, June 3, 2005
  2. Re: Chromodoris elegantula
    From: Haluk Akbatur, June 3, 2005
  3. Re: Chromodoris elegantula
    From: Egidio Trainito, June 3, 2005
  4. Re: Chromodoris elegantula
    From: Haluk Akbatur, May 31, 2005
  5. Chromodoris elegantula from Turkey
    From: Haluk Akbatur, May 30, 2005
  6. Photos of Chromodoris elegantula polychroma
    From: Alberto Piras, May 30, 2005

Show factsheet and all related messages