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Halgerda dichromis
Fahey and Gosliner, 1999
The name dichromis was given to this species to distinguish it from other Halgerda species that only have one color on the ridges. Halgerda dichromis has both black and orange coloration along the ridges. Gosliner in 1987 misidentified this animal as Halgerda formosa. But on further examination of specimens of both H. formosa and H. dichromis, and comparison to the original 1880 and 1888 descriptions of H. formosa, it became evident that we had a new species. Besides the external color differences between the two species, there are reproductive and radular differences.
This animal was collected the entrance to Durban Harbor, Natal, South Africa in 5 m water by Bill Liltved.
It sure would be nice if someone in South Africa would find another couple of these and send them over to us for examination! Photos of the specimens would be good to have sent with the animals too!
Citation
Shireen J. Fahey and Terrence M. Gosliner. 1999.Description of Three New Species of Halgerda from theWestern Indian Ocean with a Redescription of Halgerda formosa Bergh, 1880. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 51(8): 365-383, 8 Figs.
Photo courtesy of Terry Gosliner
Taxonomic text courtesy of Shireen Fahey
Shireen is in the Marine Biology program and for her thesis, she is developing
the phylogeny and biogeography of the nudibranch genus Halgerda. She has
started with a set of morphological characters but intends to include
molecular and biochemical character sets.
Send Shireen email at sfahey@sfsu.edu |
