Chromodoris cf. geminus

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Chromodorididae

PHOTO

South Coast of KwaZulu/Natal, SOUTH AFRICA, Near Port Shepstone. Rocky Reef, 20 - 25m, October 1999. Size: 40mm. PHOTO: Valda Fraser.

Note added 4 May 2007: This animal is most probably an extreme colour form of Chromodoris cavae - see message #19876.

This looks quite like Chromodoris geminus which has also been reported from South Africa. However it is deeper in colour than the C. geminus and differs in having the purple right at the mantle edge rather than submarginally. There is also a distinct deep yellow submarginal band in C. geminus while in C. cf. geminus the yellow-brown background colour on the mantle is uniform. Also in C. geminus there are spots on the foot and a white edge, while in this species there are spots on the foot but it has a purple edge. The rhinophore clubs are purple not yellowish. This may be a mimic of C. geminus.

A very distinctive behavioural characteristic of C. geminus, which you can see in the photo at the top of the C. geminus page, is that the mantle edge is raised and lowered in one movement all around the mantle edge. Valda Fraser's message shows that this species differs in having the more usual waves of movement down each side of the mantle.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 1999 (December 1) Chromodoris cf. geminus [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/chrocfge

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