Cuthona scintillans
Miller, 1977
Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Tergipedidae
DISTRIBUTION
North Island, New Zealand.
PHOTO
Poor Knights Island, northeastern New Zealand. May, 1999. Approx 1 cm long. PHOTO: Shaun Cartwright.
Known only from a few records from northern New Zealand. Characterised by greenish digestive gland and yellowish spots/specks on skin.
Reference:
• Miller, M.C. (1977) Aeolid nudibranchs (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) of the family Tergipedidae from New Zealand waters. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 60: 197-222.
Rudman, W.B., 1999 (July 1) Cuthona scintillans Miller, 1977. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/cuthscin
Related messages
Cuthona scintillans from New Zealand
September 11, 2007
From: Bill Rudman
To accompany Ian Skipworth's messages concerning Cuthona scintillans and Tularia bractea [ #20678, #20677] here is another of Michael C. Miller's photos of the New Zealand fauna. This is Cuthona scintillans, from the type locality at Devonport, Auckland.
Locality: On Tubularia larynx Paint raft, Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand. August 1962. Photo: M.C. Miller.
As Michael Miller discusses, there is considerable debate about just how many 'green' species of Cuthona there are world-wide. As this is part of the material he used to describe this species, his photo is a valuable record.
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Miller, M.C. (1977) Aeolid nudibranchs (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) of the family Tergipedidae from New Zealand waters. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 60: 197-222.
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Miller, M. C. (2004) An appraisal of the identity of the New Zealand species of the aeolid family Tergipedidae (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia). Journal of Natural History, 38: 1183-1192.
Bill Rudman
Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Sep 11) Cuthona scintillans from New Zealand. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20703Cuthona scintillans from New Zealand
July 2, 1999
From: Ian Skipworth
Hi Bill
Attached is a snap of a nudibranch that's new to me. Unfortunately, the photo is not a wonderful one but I hope it is sufficient to allow identification.
The image was taken by Shaun Cartwright a few weeks ago at the Poor Knights Islands, [northeastern New Zealand]. I have cropped the slug form the original taken with 1:1 extension tube and estimate the overall length at 10mm.
I look forward to your comments.
Regards,
Ian
Auckland, New Zealand
Skip's Underwater Image Gallery
ianskip@voyager.co.nz
Skipworth, I., 1999 (Jul 2) Cuthona scintillans from New Zealand. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1009Dear Ian,
I am pretty sure this is Cuthona scintillans, which was described as having a green digestive gland and pale yellowish patches on the skin. Although there are not many records of these little aeolids from New Zealand, species of Cuthona are often quite common. However, because they grow to maturity very quickly , sometimes you can find many but often there are none, or they are too small to readily see. Unless you diligently search for them on a regular basis they can easily be missed.
Bill Rudman.
