©Terry Schuller, All Rights Reserved 1996

Dendronotus sp.

Unidentifiable Dendronotus species

This species of Dendronotus has been observed and photographed from Anacapa Island, in California, Vancouver, British Columbia and Alaska. It differs dramatically from all described species of Dendronutus along this coast being uniformly orange to red in body color, covered with white specks. One other white spotted species exists in this area, Dendronotus albopunctatus Robilliard, 1972. Until specimens of the reddish animal are collected and disections made, we cannot say for sure whether it is a dark variation of D. albopunctatus, or a new undescribed species. Behrens (1990) included this species separately as Dendronotus sp. 1 (species number 148) due to its lack of red spots and patches on the body surface and the lack of a white line along the edge of the foot, as described for D. albopunctatus. Recent sightings in the Vancouver area indicate that the species may reach 6 to 7 inches in length. Should you see this species, please collect it (State Fishing License may be required depending on your location) and contact the Webmaster.

For those of you interested in the photographic background of the image, the following may be of interest!
The Webmaster would like to thank Terry Schuller of Ultralight Control Systems for making this image available on the Slug Site. It was photographed in the National Park reserve on Anacapa Island in the:"Landing Cove" dive site. For those of you unfamiliar with the site location, an interactive link with the PARC Map Viewer at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center has been enabled for geographic review. The ease and manuverability of the Ultralight strobe arms allowed her to get into a tight spot to photograph this nudibranch. Terry can be contacted at terry@ulcs.com

Text courtesy of :

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David W. Behrens

Author: Pacific Coast Nudibranchs
Co-Author Coral Reef Animals of the Indo Pacific
Propriator of Sea Challengers Natural History Books !

Send Dave mail at seachalleng@earthlink.net

© The Slug Site, Michael D. Miller 1999 All Rights Reserved.