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Hypselodoris festiva
Courtesy of Douglas HoffmanHypselodoris festiva (A. Adams, 1861)
This weeks noteworthy species is endemic to the waters of Japan, having not been recorded elsewhere. H. festiva is distinctive. It has a deep blue body with yellowish-white mid-dorsal and marginal band on the mantle and a series of large yellowish-white spots between the two major lines. The rhinophores are red and the circular rosette of gills is white with a lavender line up the clavus of each gill. H. festiva's closet Indo-Pacific relation is Hypselodoris infucata, a species distinguishable by its broken mid-dorsal and marginal band.
Your webmaster and I chose this species to introduce an equally unique nudibranch book. It has been awhile since an author has published an entire book on a specific opisthobranch fauna. Atsushi Ono has prepared an excellent guide to Japanese opisthobranchs in his newly released Opisthobranchs of Kerama Islands.
H. festiva is a great example of one of the few species whose geographic
distribution remains restricted to a relatively small area.
Douglas is a successful photojournalist and video maker. He has won 15 international awards for photography and been published in American, Austrailian, Asian, Japanese, and Indonesian magazines. SDJ was the first Chinese diving magazine to publish his works. Doug and Mieko are currently residing in Maui, Hawaii with puppy, Yap. Doug is providing custom dive services and shooting stills or videos of weddings. Doug is planning several reasonably priced live aboard trips in the Lembah Straits area of Indonesia Aug./Sept.. 2000, so if you're interested drop Doug a line!
Send Doug email at DMIMAGE@compuserve.com |
Taxonomic information courtesy of Dave Behrens
David W. Behrens
Author:
Pacific Coast Nudibranchs |
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