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Philinopsis gardineri
Photo couresty of Mary Jane Adams
Philinopsis gardineri (Eliot, 1903)
Philinopsis gardineri is often confused with the highly variable P. cyanea and sometimes even with Chelidonura varians. The most distinguishing feature is its round, rather than truncate anterior body margin and especially the protruding bubble shaped head, which some of us have compared to the front end of a Boeing 747.
P. gardineri has a blue line around the mantle margin and on the foot. P. cynaea which has the truncate body shape, usually has brown markings, while C. varians has a blue line down the center of the body.
This species which was originally described from Tanzania, has now been recorded throughout the Indo-Pacific from South Africa to Indonesia, New Guinea, the Philippines, Fiji, Guam and the Marshall Islands. While I would expect the species to occur also in Australia, the only reference I could find for that locale was Debelius(1996).
Cephalaspidean opisthobranchs feed on a variety of prey from filamentous algae to flatworms, polychaetes and other opisthobranchs. According to Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific , P. gardineri is a member of a species complex whose members probably feed upon polychaete worms. Specimens attain 4 cm in length and are most often observed on soft substrates.
What'd he say - "It's a bird, it's a plane, No - it's a 747" -- Hummm???
Danville, Calif
Sept., 1999
Photo courtesy of Mary Jane Adams of Arcadia, California:
Send Mary Jane mail at mjadams@earthlink |
Taxonomic information courtesy of Dave Behrens
David W. Behrens
Author:
Pacific Coast Nudibranchs |
