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Thuridilla mazda
In situ photo of 5 mm long animal taken at Columbia Shallows, southwest side of Isla Cozumel, Mexico, 10-15 m deep. Photo by Julie MacRae, 4 December 2024.
Thuridilla mazda Ortea & Espinosa, 2000
This is an intriguingly beautiful little sacoglossan. The body of the animal is black. The parapodial borders are colored with eye-grabbing semi-lunar areas of yellow, orange, and blue which alternate with black areas . The parapodial borders are slightly undulated, with the undulations of each side fitting into the opposite parapodia. The interior of the parapodia is a uniform black, and there are orange spots at the beginning of the cardiac area. The tail region posterior to the parapodia is bordered only with an orange band.
The rhinophores are short, and with a wide base. They are black in the anterior (ventral) side, and white with an apical blue splotch on the dorsal (posterior) side.
The radula of a 6 mm animal had 5 teeth in the ascending (dorsal) series, 9 in the descending (ventral), and 4 in the ascus. The teeth in the ascus are four-sided and without cusps. The teeth in the ascending series are strongly denticulate. The descending teeth become progressively smaller, with the last tooth about one-half the size of the first.
This species has been reported from numerous locations in the western Atlantic, from Florida and throughout the Caribbean.
Etymology: The species name was chosen to honor the authors’ 1987 Mazda 626 Glx vehicle, in which they traversed 198,000 kilometers along the thoroughfares of Cuba in their collecting expeditions. To my knowledge, it is the only automobile honored with a Heterobranch species. There are however numerous boats with such an honor. Tritonia challengeriana
Reference
Ortea, Jesús & José Espinosa. 2000. Nueva especie del género Thuridilla Bergh, 1872 (Mollusca: Sacoglossa) de Cuba y Costa Rica. Avicennia (12/13): 87-90.
Send Hans mail at hansmarvida@sbcglobal.net
Julie MacRae got her start diving in 1983 when her father invited her to get certified and dive with him. She took to it like a nudibranch to sponges! Now Julie enjoys tropical diving worldwide, where the modern macro cameras have opened up a whole new underwater world. Nudibranchs are one of her favorite subjects, for their vast variety of colors, shapes, and sizes (not just because they're slow moving!). When she's not diving, Julie enjoys breeding and raising fish in her home aquariums. Her other interests include swimming and making pottery. Until her lucrative underwater photography career takes off, she's still working as a reconstructive surgeon in Delaware, USA.
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