Re: Okenia cf. hiroi from New Zealand

January 26, 2005
From: Ian Skipworth


Note added 10 Dec. 2007: This species has been identified as most probably Okenia atkinsonorum [see message #21273].

Hi Bill
Thanks very much for your reply to my message [#12958]. I have 6 shots of the slug but they're all fairly similar. The attached images are different shots from the one I sent you before and show the whole frame. I was in under the Ecklonia (kelp) canopy when I took these.

Glad you had a good holiday in NZ.

Thanks again
Ian

ian@ianskipworth.com

Skipworth, I., 2005 (Jan 26) Re: Okenia cf. hiroi from New Zealand. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/13019

Dear Ian,
Your new photos suggest your animal is very similar to the northwestern Pacific species Okenia hiroi. We would need to examine its anatomy to be 100% sure, but it appears identical in colour and very similar in shape to Yukari Sato's photos of animals from Tsuruga Bay, Japan [see message #11399]. The only obvious external difference I can see is that usually in Okenia hiroi the mid dorsal mantle papilla is nearer the gills, and there are a pair of papillae just in front of the gills, and slightly behind the mid dorsal mantle papilla.

Your photos clearly show the encrusting bryozoan on which it has been feeding. Whether it is a new species or not, it is indeed a new record from New Zealand.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Jan 26). Comment on Re: Okenia cf. hiroi from New Zealand by Ian Skipworth. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/13019

Factsheet

Okenia atkinsonorum

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