Hypselodoris gasconi? from the Adriatic

June 2, 2006
From: Cristian Magnani

Dear Bill
Recently I found a small Hypselodoris while diving. I thought it had to be a specimen of Hypselodoris villafranca - that is pretty common in this area - so I took just a few quick shoots and moved on. Once at home I realized it was something different: I think it is Hypselodoris gasconi according to the book by Egidio Trainito. If i am right it is the very first sighting of this Hypselodoris in our area. I saw there are no pictures of this nudibranch on the forum hence I wish to share my ones.

Locality: Numana, 10 mt, Italy, Adriatic Sea, 06 May 2006, sandy bottom with scattered rocks. Length: 10 mm. Photographer: Cristian Magnani.

Thanks you so much!
Best wishes
Cristian

cristianmagnani@hotmail.com

Magnani, C., 2006 (Jun 2) Hypselodoris gasconi? from the Adriatic. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/16566

Dear Cristian,
Another interesting 'blue chromodorid'. I hope a local expert can confirm its identification. It also looks like some forms of H. villafranca and juvenile H. orsinii so I had a look at the original description of the H. gasconi. In that (Ortea et al, 1996) it says that 'the edge of the mantle is orange and can have the zones in front of the rhinophores and behind the gills replaced with white.' which certainly fits your photo, but can also occur in both the other two species I mention above. Ortea says H. gasconi can be differentiated from H. villafranca because the mantle border in H. gasconi is a 'strong' orange.

One difference between your animal and Ortea's illustrations of H. gasconi is the presence of a white line close to the orange border. This is not present in Ortea's description, but is present in photos (Fig 5B, C) of juvenile H. villafranca.

  • Ortea, J., Valdes, A. & Garcia-Gomez, J.C. (1996) Review of the atlantic species of the Family Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) of the blue chromatic group. Avicennia (Suppl. 1): 1-160

Hopefully a local expert can help us

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Jun 2). Comment on Hypselodoris gasconi? from the Adriatic by Cristian Magnani. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/16566

Factsheet

Unidentified - Europe, Mediterranean, West Africa

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