Hypselodoris ghiselini - new record from Peru

February 20, 2006
From: David Thompson

Hi Bill
How are you? Would you be so kind as to identify the attached species for me please.I would be very grateful.

The specimens were found on a "muddy" bottom with patches of Caulerpa flagelliformis at 5.5 m on the 04 November 2005, water temp. 17.4ºC, size of animals ~6 cm. The locality was Paita in Piura, northern Peru, 05º04,802'  Lat and 81º06,208' Long.  

These specimens were found by Marina Quiñe, a colleague from Peru.

Regards,
David

david@diverdavid.co.uk

Thompson, D., 2006 (Feb 20) Hypselodoris ghiselini - new record from Peru. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15852

Dear David,

Well this is a truly interesting find.  The only slender, blue species of chromodorids found in the region of Peru, are Hypselodoris lapislazuli (Bertsch &Ferreira, 1974) and Hypselodoris agassizii (Bergh, 1849), however your photos here do not resemble either of these species.  Excellent photographs of H. lapislazuli can be found in Hickman & Finet (1999) and Camacho-Garcia et al. (2005).  Your species is quite different, in fact it is a dead ringer for a more northern species, Hypselodoris ghiselini Bertsch, 1978.

If my identification is accurate your find accounts for a very large extension of this species documented geographic range.  Behrens & Hermosillo (2005) report H. ghiselini from the Gulf of California, Mexico.  Camacho-Garcia et al. (2005) covering Costa Rica, Panama and the Galapagos, do not list it at all.  This is a great find.

  • Behrens, D.W. & A. Hermosillo.  2005.  Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs - A guide to the opisthobranchs from Alaska to Central America.  Sea Challengers.   137 pp.
  • Camacho-Garcia, Y., T.M. Gosliner & A. Valdes.  2005.  Field Guide to the Sea Slugs of the Tropical Eastern Pacific.  California Academy of Sciences.  129.
  • Hickman, C.P. & Y. Finet.  1999.  A Field Guide to the Marine Molluscs of Galapagos.  Sugar Springs Press.   150 pp.

We hope to have a Fact Sheet for H. lapislazuli soon, describing the pale blue marginal band, and other characters separating it from H. ghiselini.

Best wishes,
Dave Behrens

Behrens, D.W., 2006 (Feb 20). Comment on Hypselodoris ghiselini - new record from Peru by David Thompson. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15852

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