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Thuridilla malaquita
13 mm long animal, photographed by Hans Bertsch, 22 August 1986
Halifax Bay (12º 06' 50" N; 61º 44' 45" W), Grenada
Thuridilla malaquita Ortea & Buske, 2014
Elongate, very narrow body, 10-15 mm in length. The background coloration of the living animal is a malachite green, with white or cream spots or warts (= verrugas). The warts are largest and most
abundant along the border of the parapodia with up to 12 undulations,
and are joined at the posterior-most region. The parapodial edges have a yellow-orange band. Rhinophores tipped with purple.
Radula with 5 teeth in the ascending series, 17 in the descending, and 4 in the sac. The teeth are robust, the tip is not strongly pointed, and the largest teeth measure 130 µm long and 60 µm wide.
This species has been reported from widely-separated sites in the Caribbean. The type locality is Martinique, Lesser Antilles. The specimen illustrating this BOW was observed in Grenada;
T. malaquita has also been observed in Florida and Colombia (Valdés et al., 2006).
Thuridilla malaquita and its sister species T. carlsoni Gosliner, 1995, form a distinct basal polytomy, along with T. kathae Gosliner, 1995, and T. flavomaculata Gosliner, 1995 (Martín-Hervás et al., 2021).
The species name was chosen in reference to its body coloration. It joins Felimare lapislazuli (Bertsch & Ferreira, 1974) as species named for gemstone colors.
Literature Cited
Bertsch, Hans. & Ferreira, Antonio J. 1974. Four new species of nudibranchs from tropical West America. The Veliger 16(4): 343-353.
Gosliner, Terrence M. 1995. The genus Thuridilla (Opithobranchia: Elysidae) from the tropical
Indo-Pacific, with a revision of the phylogeny and systematics of the Elysiidae. Proceedings California Academy of Sciences, 4th ser., 49(1): 1-54.
Martín-Hervás, María del Rosario, Leila Carmona, Manuel Antonio E. Malaquias, Patrick J. Krug, Terrence M. Gosliner & Juan Lucas Cervera. 2021. A molecular phylogeny of Thuridilla Bergh, 1872 sea slugs (Gastropoda, Sacoglossa) reveals a case of flamboyant and cryptic radiation in the marine realm. Cladistics (2021) 1–30.
Ortea, Jesús & Yan Buske. 2014. Una nueva especie de Thuridilla Bergh, 1872 (Mollusca: Sacoglossa) de la isla de Martinica, Antillas Menores. Revista de la Real Academia Canaria de Ciencias 26: 189-194.
Imperial Beach, Calif
Jan., 2024
Send Hans email at hansmarvida@sbcglobal.net
Norris Ela & Hans Bertsch, Grenada St. George's
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