Berthellina citrina from the Gulf of Kutch, India

July 29, 2006
From: Arpit Deomurari


Dear Bill

I found 6 of this sea slug on a reef slope on Paga Reef in the Bay of Poshitra area of the Gulf of Kutch, Gujrat, India. The Paga reef is almost always submerged except when there is a minus tide.

I found 3 pairs which looked like they might be mating. So I didn't disturb them and only took photographs for identification. I need species identification of this species.

Locality: Paga Reef, 3 ft, Gujarat, Gulf of Kutch, Arabian Sea, 15 november 2005, submerged reef exposed on minus tide. Photographer: Arpit Deomurari.

Arpit Deomurari

deomurari@gmail.com

Deomurari, Arpit, 2006 (Jul 29) Berthellina citrina from the Gulf of Kutch, India. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17187

Dear Arpit,
This is a pleurobranch or 'side-gilled slug' and is most probably Berthellina citrina. There is some unpublished work suggesting there is more than one orange Berthellina species in the Indo-West Pacific region, but until that work is complete we just need to be aware that B. citrina may include a number of species.

This is probably the species K.R. Narayanan reported  from the Gulf of Kutch, firstly as  Berthellina minor Bergh, 1905 (Narayanan, 1969) and then as B. citrina(Narayanan, 1970).

  • Narayanan, K. R. (1969) On the opisthobranchiate fauna of the Gulf of Kutch. Proceedings of the Symposium on Mollusca held at Cochin from January 12 to 16, 1968, Symposium Series 3, Pt. 1, Marine Biological Association of India, Mandapam Camp, India.
     188-213. Figs 1-20.
  • Narayanan, K. R. (1970) On a species of the genus Berthellina (Opisthobranchia: Notaspidea) of the Gulf of Kutch. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India 12: 210-213.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Jul 29). Comment on Berthellina citrina from the Gulf of Kutch, India by Arpit Deomurari. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17187

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