Glossodoris dalli from the Galapagos Ids

December 28, 2004
From: Julianne Parolisi


Dear Bill,
first off, thank you so much for maintaining this website, it's absolutely brilliant! i have long been fascinated by (and recently quite obsessed with) nudibranchs and other sea slugs, so upon discovery of your site today i have been literally sucked to my computer for HOURS browsing photos, reading, and generally soaking up information- i love it! :)

now on to the questions... for the past few months i have been living and diving in the Galapagos Islands, and i am very curious about a few nudis i spotted there, but have been unable to find precise answers on your site.
the first is the one pictured here,, after searching your database, it seems that the most likely candidate would be Glossodoris dalli, it's just about identical except mine is more brown/black spotted than greenish like the ones pictured here. could you please confirm (or deny) that for me?

Locality: Isabela Island, Galapagos Ids,  Ecuador, East Pacific Ocean
Depth: ~ 3 meters. Length: ~ 1 inch
3 December 2004, Mangroves
Photographer: Julianne Parolisi

My second is a little tougher as i unfortunately don't have a photo, but this was the sweetest little thing i've ever seen and i'm dying to know what it is.... i was doing a dive around santa cruz island and at about 8 meters i spotted a tiny (~ 1 cm) bright yellow plump round slug with a circle of purplish dots on its back. it was very smooth with 2 tiny rhinophores but no gills to speak of, and i seem to remember it having a bit of a tail-like point at the back. the closest thing i could find on your site was Berthellina citrina, but none of those pictures had anything resembling the purple circle on the back that mine had. any ideas?

thank you so much,
Julianne

aurorable@gmail.com

Parolisi, J., 2004 (Dec 28) Glossodoris dalli from the Galapagos Ids. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12832

Dear Julianne,
Glad you like the Forum. I would certainly be interested in photos of any sea slugs you find there. As you no doubt have seen already on the Forum, we are interested in any species, no matter how common, and particularly if the photos can give us any information, or cluse, about the species biology or natural history.

Your photos are of Glossodoris dalli. I guess it's possible that there is more than one very similarly coloured species but you would need to compare the anatomy of different coloured animals and see if you can find any behavioural differences, such as food choice, before we could say anything sensible.  I'm afraid your yellow one with the purple ring is a mystery to me. Perhaps someone with a personal knowledge of the east Pacific fauna could help us out.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2004 (Dec 28). Comment on Glossodoris dalli from the Galapagos Ids by Julianne Parolisi. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12832

Factsheet

Glossodoris dalli

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