Flabellina cf. pedata

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Flabellinidae

PHOTO

Cala Joncols, Spain, divesite "La Trona", 11m depth, length 21mm, April 21, 2000, Photo: Erwin Koehler. [See message below for further photos.]

See messages below discussing the status of this 'species'.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2000 (June 17) Flabellina cf. pedata [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/flabcfpeda

Related messages


Re: Flabellina pedata? from Spain

June 18, 2000
From: Juan Lucas Cervera

Hi Bill,

I'm currently spending a short visit to the Chris Todd's lab in Scotland. Nevertheless, I'm checking the Sea Slug Forum.

Concerning Erwin's "Flabellina pedata", it seems to me that is probably an unknown species. According to my knowledge, and considering the size of the specimen, the digestive gland is not visible in F. pedata, since all the surface of the cerata are violet coloured, except an subapical opaque white ring. This is not the situation with Erwin's animal. The other violet Mediterranean Flabellina are F. affinis and F. ischitana. You can see the ceratal digestive gland in these species but they have a different arrangement of the cerata in the anterior groups (they are pedunculate).

It would be necessary to examine the internal anatomy to confirm my suspicion that this is an unnamed species.

Once again, the colour pattern is not enough to determine whether a species is unknown or a variation of a known species.

Cheers.

Lucas.

lucas.cervera@uca.es

Cervera, J.L., 2000 (Jun 18) Re: Flabellina pedata? from Spain. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2576

Dear Lucas,
Thanks for your comments, and give my regards to Chris. It would be nice to have some information on the Forum about the interesting work Chris and his team are doing on opisthobranch ecology.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.