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Polycera abei
Photo taken at Gulf Of Oman, United Arab emiratesPhoto courtesy of Carole and Leon Harris
Polycera abei
This somewhat rare species, known primarily from Japanese and Australian waters, Ono, page 99 , Nikano, page 98 and Umiushi , has shown up in Khor Fakkan situated in the Gulf Of Oman, United Arab Emirates. That’s quite a distance apart. This kind of distribution is not uncommon among polycerid’s. Polycera hedgepthi is found throughout the North Pacific Ocean, as well as, South Africa, West Africa, northern New Zealand, and in Australia from Mallacoota, (northern Victoria), Sydney (New South Wales) and one report from Albany (Western Australia), as well as from the Mediterranean. Now that’s some distribution.
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Originally Baba placed the species in the genus – Greilada. Some authors treat Greilada as a subgenus of Polycera. Most use Polycera , however. The species name is to recognize the accomplishements of one of Dr. Baba’s students, Takeo Abe. This species grows to about 15mm. Body smooth above and there is no pallial ridge on each side, like in some other Polycera’s. It has six velar papillae, that are long and digitiform. General body colour translucent yellowish white, with black spots interspersed among the orange ones. Rhinophores and velar papillae are black, and the gill is yellowish white with black tips. What is extremely interesting to note is that when Carole and Leon found these specimens they were among a large gourp of Thecacera picta, which they closely resemble. This is likely a situation of Mullerian Mimicry, where both species benefit by their similar appearance, advertizing their caustic taste if bitten. Examples of this include Bill Rudman’s red-spotted chromodorids, and the Limacia cockerelli, Crimora conejo , Triopha catalinae complex. |