Colombian Chromodoris clenchi is C. binza

October 11, 2000
From: Angel Valdes

Dear Bill and Phanor,

I think this animal belongs to the species Chromodoris binza Marcus & Marcus, 1963. There is a paper by Ortea at al. (1994) discussing the differences between the Chromodoris clenchi species complex. According to that paper Chromodoris clenchi (Russell, 1935), Chromodoris neona (Marcus, 1955), Chromodoris binza Marcus & Marcus, 1963 and Chromodoris britoi Ortea & Pérez, 1983 are different species. I am not longer in agreement with all the conclusions of that paper, and I doubt that Chromodoris binza from the Caribbean and Chromodoris britoi from the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic are actually distinct. But I am positive that Chromodoris clenchi, Chromodoris neona and Chromodoris binza are different species. I collected extensively Chromodoris clenchi, and Chromodoris binza in the Caribbean, and they differ in color pattern and behavior. There are also some anatomical differences. Chromodoris neona appears to live only in Southern Brazil, and the records of this species from the Caribbean are probably misidentifications.

Reference: Ortea, J., Valdés, A. & Espinosa, J. 1994. North Atlantic nudibranchs of the Chromodoris clenchi colour group (Opisthobranchia: Chromododorididae). Journal of Molluscan Studies, 60: 237-248.

All the best,
Angel

avaldes@calacademy.org

Valdes, A., 2000 (Oct 11) Colombian Chromodoris clenchi is C. binza. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3157

Dear Angel,
Thanks for this clarification and for drawing my attention to a hole in my reference database. I completely missed your paper when answering Phanor's message. These are an interesting (and beautiful) group of similarly coloured species. It would be interesting to get some information on their food preferences and the shape of their egg masses.

Thanks also for the photos of the different species which I will add in the next couple of days.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Factsheet

Chromodoris binza

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