Dendrodoris tuberculosa from South China Sea

July 17, 2006
From: Carmen Loke

HI,
Can you please help me to identify this beautiful slug found in Pulau Dayang, East Malaysia. It was just gliding across the rocky coral bed, looking for food. It's back is filled with little cauliflower-like warts. It was about 10cm big, at about 10m depth. Is this a Pleurobranchus?

Locality: Pulau Dayang, 10, East Malaysia, South China Seas, 30 April 2006, Channel. Length: 10cm. Photographer: Carmen Loke.

Appreciate your help.
Carmen

carmenloke@hotmail.com

Loke, C., 2006 (Jul 17) Dendrodoris tuberculosa from South China Sea. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17135

Dear Carmen,
This is Dendrodoris tuberculosa, which is a dorid nudibranch rather then a pleurobranch. Pleurobranchs, which are often called 'side-gilled' slugs, have a single gill on the right side of the body below the mantle skirt. Your animal has a very obvious set of gills on its back, near the posterior end, which is a character of dorid nudibranchs. It also has large rhinophores with the sensory club perched almost at right-angles on top of the stalk, a shape which is found in a number of large species of Dendrodoris such as D. tuberculosa and D. carbunculosa. In an earlier message about a very similarly coloured specimen from Sth Korea [#7605], I said it was not possible to be sure of its identity without some information on the colour of the underside of the mantle, because one species, D. tuberculosa, has very characteristic white spots, which are absent in a second species, D. carbunculosa. Fortunately we have a later message from Bruce Potter from the Solomons [#12381] in which he turned his animal over and reported white spots, So like his animal I am pretty sure yours is D. tuberculosa.  
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Jul 17). Comment on Dendrodoris tuberculosa from South China Sea by Carmen Loke. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17135

Factsheet

Dendrodoris tuberculosa

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