Understanding Chromodoris splendida

I'm never offended at having my views questioned, so never worry about having a go at me. Here are a couple of other photos of Steve Grail's in the lot you sent me from Mooloolaba which I also think are C. splendida which with the photos already posted helps show the range of variation in the species. C. splendida in central and southern New South Wales is white with large red spots/patches, a rich yellow mantle border, red rhinophore clubs and red-lined gills. In northern New South Wales and southern Queensland strange things happen to the red spots. Often there is only one, sometimes none. In short the photo you sent me fits a pattern I know from up your way with one large red spot on the back. In your photo the colour of the red spot is a bit washed out but it is quite a different colour to the "orange" edging the border. You will note that the rhinophore clubs and the edges of the gills are the same colour as the spots.

The message I have been trying to get across is that we have to look at colour patterns and combinations of colours rather than just say red spots. In this case the redspots on the back, the lines on the gills and the red rhinophores are all the same colour even if the "red" has become a bit faded.

In a paper of mine on chromodorid colour patterns in southeastern Australia (Rudman, 1991) I illustrate how a number of species of chromodorid in southeastern Australia change their colour pattern over parts of their range. Not only do some species evolve similar colour patterns to mimic each other, but a few species mimic different species in different parts of their range and so have evolved different colour patterns in different places..... Bill Rudman