 |
Aldisa albatrossae
Photo Curtesy of Angel Valdes
Aldisa albatrossaei Elwood, Valdes and Gosliner 2000
Here is the second blue colored dorid to be named recently (well 15 months ago) by Elwood, Valdes and Gosliner. Aldisa albatrossae was originally collected on the Albatrosse Expedition of 1907-1910 to the Philippines. A color illustration was included in the expedition documents but the species was never officially described. The trio of authors (above) named this species from a series of specimens all collected by Bob Bolland from Okinawan waters.
Aldisa albatrossae is blue with white tubercles, similar to Aldisa williamsi , featured last week on this site. If differs externally from A. williamsi in the shape of the black dorsal band, which forms a "T" in front of the rhinophores, and a band across the front of the branchial pit, and the presence of the yellow-orange splotches, seen above, at both ends of the beast.
Like A. williamsi, Aldisa albatrossae also bears strong resemblance to the porostome, Phyllidiella pustulosa (Cuvier, 1804), and as the authors point out, probably mimics it. The acid secreting P. pustulosa lacks a dorsally situated gill and has no radula, of course.
A source of other photos of this colorful species can be found in Ono , 1999, page 110 and Masuda , 1999, page 105.
It is interesting to note the similarity between this species and Aldisa erwinkoehleri Perrone 2001, named after friend and Brancher, Erwin Koehler . It is also similar to the Chromodoris sp., at the bottom of page 213 in Debelius .
Danville, Calif
Feb. 2002
References
Elwood, Hillary R., Angel Valdes & Terrence M. Gosliner. 2000. Two new species of Aldisa Bergh, 1878 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia) from the tropical Indo-Pacific. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 52(14): 171-181.
Perrone, A. 2001. A new species of Nudibranchia of the genus
Aldisa Bergh (Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia) Basteria 65: 105-116
Taxonomic information courtesy of:
David W. Behrens
Author:
Pacific Coast Nudibranchs
Send Dave mail at seachalleng@earthlink.net
|
