Glossodoris paladentatus? from South Africa

April 1, 2000
From: Valda Fraser


Dear Bill
Something to cheer me up - a nudibranch that I haven't seen before! Please tell me what it is.
Locality: South coast KwaZulu-Natal SOUTH AFRICA. Park Rynie - 34m
Date: March 2000
Size: 50mm
Regards
Valda Fraser

iti04937@mweb.co.za

Fraser, V., 2000 (Apr 1) Glossodoris paladentatus? from South Africa. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2163

Dear Valda,
Your animal looks very like Glossodoris atromarginata in shape but rather different in colour. I have posted in a separate message an east African Glossodoris atromarginata which has some white mottling.

What your animal looks like in colour is Glossodoris paladentatus which in the close-up photo of the holotype on the right you can see has white speckling and scattered brown as well. You can also see traces of the brown (innermost), blue, and black (outer) bands at the mantle edge. The only way to be sure, however, that your animal is Glossodoris paladentatus, which at present is only known from the western Pacific, would be for me to have a look at its anatomy.

For comparison I have posted pages on Glossodoris plumbea and Glossodoris gregorius, two other species from the western Indian Ocean with similarities.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 2000 (Apr 1). Comment on Glossodoris paladentatus? from South Africa by Valda Fraser. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2163

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