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Image courtesy of Michael Miller (Webmaster)
Seraya Slopes, Bali, Indonesia
Screen grab from video
Terry Gosliner and his team of slugophiles at the California Academy of Sciences are known for giving species most interesting names. This species is no exception. Quoting from their description of this new species - "Hypselodoris confetti comes from the Italian word confetti that means sweets, referring to the multicolored sweets that were thrown to people at Italian carnivals. In the 19th century it was used to refer to brightly colored pieces of paper tossed out during parades. This species is marked with bright blue, yellow and black spots resembling confetti."
I think that pretty much says it all. It is a white hypselodorid similar to Hypselodoris kanga(Courtesy of Bill Rudman's Sea Slug Forum), with large yellow spots and smaller dark blue to black spots scattered over the surface. Large blue areas are found near the mantle margin. Additional spots of same color found on sides of body and foot. The gill branches have purple lines along edges of inner and outer surface. The apex of gill branch is red-orange. The central portion of middle of outer face of gill branches has three to five yellow spots. The rhinophores are deep purple, extending onto basal half of club. The upper half of rhinophoral club is bright red.
The species ranges from Papua New Guinea and the Philippines to Hong Kong and Indonesia
Reference:
Epstein, Hannah E., Hallas, Joshua M., Johnson, Rebecca Fay, Lopez, Alessandra, Gosliner, Terrence M. (2018): Reading between the lines: revealing cryptic species diversity and colour patterns in Hypselodoris nudibranchs (Mollusca: Heterobranchia: Chromodorididae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 20 (1): 1-74, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zly048
Dave Behrens
Sammamish, WA 98074
Feb., 2023
Send Dave email at davidwbehrens@gmail.com
Image courtesy of Webmaster
 | Webmaster's Notes: I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to Christiane Waldrich and the staff at Villa Markisa Dive Resort in Bali for the very productive time I had during my seven day stay at the resort! This was my first outing in two years so you can imagine the thoughts going thru my mind as to whether my body and camera equipment were up to the challenge! Thanks again to the staff support at Villa Markisa and especially my guide Budi, I was able to video a remarkable number of subjects in my two dive a day routine for the seven days. I am preparing a trip video of the trip which will be posted in short time centering on my trip to Bali I highly recommend Villa Markisa to all you nudiphiles, but be prepared for the super macro opportunities. Many of these subjects were in the 10mm or below range!
Send Mike email at mdmiller1@cox.net |
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