Flabellina sp. 7

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Superfamily: AEOLIDINA
Family: Flabellinidae

PHOTO

Locality: Eilat, ~28 meters, Israel, Red Sea, 11 July 2006. Length: 1-1.5 cm. Photographer: Oren Lederman.

It looks similar to Flabellina bicolor in general shape and colour, but there are a number of distinct differences. In shape, this animal has smooth rhinophores rather than the big lamellate club found in F. bicolor. It has a subterminal yellow band on the cerata, like F. bicolor, but I have never seen that species with a two median yellow spots each surrounded by opaque white, as this one does, one in front of the rhinophores and one just behind.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2006 (July 21) Flabellina sp. 7 [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/flabsp7

Related messages


Re: Unknown Flabellina from the Red Sea

July 26, 2006
From: Binyamin Koretz

Concerning message #17157:

Dear Bill,
Just for clarification, what I had written on our Israeli seaslug forum was that Oren's animal shows similarity to F. bicolor but that the latter species has different rhinophores, etc., as you explained. More important, I also pointed out that Erwin Koehler has posted photos of identical slugs from Thailand, which he called Flabellina cf bicolor, on his medslugs site. (See http://www.medslugs.de/E/Ind-E/Flabellina_bicolor_cf.htm) These have the same head markings as Oren's slug, so as you surmised, this is indeed characteristic of the species -- which apparently has a geographic range of at least from the Red Sea to the eastern Indian Ocean.

Best regards
Binyamin

binyamin@koretz.net

Koretz, B., 2006 (Jul 26) Re: Unknown Flabellina from the Red Sea. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17206

Thanks Binyamin,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Jul 26). Comment on Re: Unknown Flabellina from the Red Sea by Binyamin Koretz. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17206

Unknown Flabellina from the Red Sea

July 21, 2006
From: Oren Lederman

Hi Bill,

Here's an unknown Flabellina I found last week. Binyamin Koretz suggested that it looks similiar to Flabellina bicolor.

Locality: Eilat, ~28 meters, Israel, Red Sea, 11 July 2006. Length: 1-1.5 cm. Photographer: Oren Lederman.

Oren Lederman

lederman@bigmail.co.il

Lederman, O., 2006 (Jul 21) Unknown Flabellina from the Red Sea. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17157

Dear Oren,
It certainly looks similar to F. bicolor in general shape and colour but there are a number of distinct differences. In shape, this animal has smooth rhinophores rather than the big lamellate club found in F. bicolor. It has a subterminal yellow band on the cerata, like F. bicolor, but I have never seen that species with a two median yellow spots, each surrounded by opaque white, as this one does, one in front of the rhinophores and one just behind.

I think this is an unnamed species. If so these two characters are probably characteristic.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Jul 21). Comment on Unknown Flabellina from the Red Sea by Oren Lederman. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17157