Paradoris lopezi
Hermosillo & Valdes, 2004
Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Discodorididae
DISTRIBUTION
Known only from 2 specimens from the Pacific coast of Mexico
PHOTO
Locality: Rocky shores, 20 feet, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Eastern Pacific, Subtidal. Length: 26 mm. Photographer: Alicia Hermosillo.
This is species is a dull grey or brown with conical rounded tubercles scattered over the mantle, the larger ones being tipped with pinkish brown. Small, almost microscopic opaque white spheres are closely packed in the skin, and sometimes they appear to have a blackish or brownish central spot. Around the mantle edge there is scattered brownish pigmentation creating a brownish band around the mantle edge.
Dayrat (2006) describes a mantle pocked with 'wide holes'. I can see no sign of them in photogrpahs of living animals and can only presume they are an artifact of SEM preparation. Perhaps the opaque white spheres are gland cells, and the 'wide holes' are the collapsed remnants of these cells?
The largest known specimen approximately 30 mm long.
- Dayrat, B. (2006) A taxonomic revision of Paradoris sea slugs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia, Doridina). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 147: 125-238.
- Hermosillo A. & Valdés, A. (2005). Two new Dorids (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) of Bahía de Banderas and La Paz, México. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 55(28): 550-560, 5 figs.
Rudman, W.B., 2007 (March 1) Paradoris lopezi Hermosillo & Valdes, 2004. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/paralope
