Re: Chromodoris boucheti with a yellow trim from Mayotte

Dear Sandrine et Hugues,

This is an interesting find. It certainly seems this species can have orange and black marks around the mantle edge as can be clearly seen in the animal you mention from Pemba.

The presence of both a grey and a red sponge in your photos is also rather tantalising as either - or both - could be the food of this species. Chromodoris boucheti belongs to a group of similarly coloured species of Chromodoris some of which eat both a red species of Negombata and some dark grey thorectid sponges. The light grey sponge in your photo looks like a dysideid. Species of Chromodoris don't usually feed on sponges of that family but there are a few species with black lines which seem to prefer them. So it would not be unreasonable to find C. boucheti feeding on either of the sponges in your photo. If you have any other photos of it associated with either of these sponges or the dark grey thorectid in the Pemba message [#16373], I would be very interested. By coincidence, there is another photo from Pemba [#16384] showing C. boucheti associated with a light grey Dysidea probably identical to the one in your photos.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman