A new species of Glossodoris from Sulawesi

November 21, 2005
From: Mary Jane Adams

Hi Bill,
I would like to introduce a new Glossodoris species from Indonesia that recently described by Angel Valdes and myself. Glossodoris tibboeli is easy to recognize by its starkly white body and distinctive dark brown dorsal stripe that begins in front of the rhinophores and ends immediately behind the gill. Adults have a crawling length of about 25 mm. So far, G. tibboeli is known only from a few small islands in the Sangihe Archipelago about 90 miles north of the northern tip of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Locality: Para Island, Sangihe Archipelago, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Depth: 10 meters. Length: 25 mm. 13 June 2004. Coral pinnacle. Photographer: M.J. Adams

Hans Tibboel, an Ocean Rover divemaster and branchophile, first noticed this slug while diving on an offshore pinnacle near Para Island in June 2004. He photographed it with his new digital camera and asked me if I could identify it. We searched through every book in the boat's library, but couldn't find a picture like it. Although I had skipped the morning dives due to illness, I suddenly felt well enough to do the next dive at this site. I was nearly out of air and beginning my ascent when I came across twelve of these distinctive slugs clustered together on a dark colored sponge.

On a return trip to Northern Sulawesi in June of 2005 Hans found large aggregations of G. tibboeli at the same divesite. On one dive he counted over 100 G. tibboeli concentrated on sponges on the exposed side of the pinnacle. He has also seen of G. tibboeli in smaller numbers at other dive sites on Para Island, Kahakitang and Mahengetang Islands. I have included some of Hans' images in a second message.

• Valdés, A. and Adams, M. J. (2005) A new species of Glossodoris (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) of the Glossodoris atromarginata Colour Group, from Indonesia. Pacific Science, 59: 603-608.

Best wishes
Mary Jane Adams

divepng@yahoo.com

Adams, M.J., 2005 (Nov 21) A new species of Glossodoris from Sulawesi. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15043

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