Cuthona pinnifera
(Baba, 1949)

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Tergipedidae

DISTRIBUTION

Japan, Hawaiian Ids.

PHOTO

Uozu, Toyama Bay. 12mm long alive. 20 April 2002. Photo courtesy of the Takaoka Biological Club, Japan.

The rhinophores are relatively long with a number of irregular semi-circular plates arranged along their length. The body is translucent white with opaque white mottling. The oral tentacles are translucent clear with two broad white bands, one in the upper quarter the other in the second quarter from the base. Between these white bands the translucent region is pigmented with yellow-orange, which is clealry visible in some lights and apprently absent in others. The cerata are also white or translucent with broad white bands, and there is a yellow-orange band near the tip. This semicircular plates on the rhinophores and the yellow band on the cerata seem to be characteristc of this species.

See Cuthona cf. pinnnata.

References:
• Abe, T. (1964) Opisthobranchia of Toyama Bay and adjacent waters. Hokuryu-kan, Tokyo. 99pp., 36 Plates.
• Baba, K (1949) Opisthobranchia of Sagami Bay collected by His Majesty The Emperor of Japan. Iwanami Shoyen, Tokyo. 194pp., 50 Pls.
• Gosliner, T.M. (1979) The systematics of the Aeolidiacea (Nudibranchia: Mollusca) of the Hawaiian Islands, with descriptions of two new species. Pacific Science, 33(1): 37-77.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2002 (July 14) Cuthona pinnifera (Baba, 1949). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/cuthpinn

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