Cuthona barbadiana
Edmunds & Just, 1983
Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Tergipedidae
DISTRIBUTION
Barbados, Caribbean
PHOTO
On Sargassum algae attached to the substrate in 1m. Scotland Cay, Abaco, Bahamas. August 8, 1998. Photos: Colin Redfern.
Described from two 4-6mm specimens collected on algae, outside the Bellairs Research Institute, Barbados. The following description is based on a combination of the original description and Colin Redfern's photos.
The body wall is transparent so the orange/beige internal organs are clearly visible. Oral tentacles and rhinophores are of equal length, and they have irregular white lines at the base, a wine-red, or purplish, band around the middle, and are pigmented white distally. There is a large white blotch on each side of the head which is elongated towards the first group of cerata. There is a regular pattern of white lines on the head and dorsum.
The two rows of cerata arising from the anterior branches of the liver converge dorsally so that they almost from arches, but the posterior cerata are arranged in rows. The ceratal arrangement is: Right side: 8; 3, 3, 2, 2; Left side: 7; 4, 3, 2, 2. The cerata are up to 1.2mm long, slender and pointed. The base of each ceras is wine-red, then semitransparent brownish, and distally is whitish with a transparent tip. There are several longitudinal white lines on each ceras, each more or less parallel with the long axis of the ceras, though occasionally converging or diverging from one another. The foot is slightly notched anteriorly with rounded foot corners.
Reference:
• Edmunds, M. & Just, H. (1983). Eolid nudibranchiate mollusca from Barbados. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 49: 185-203
• Marcus, Ev. & Hughes, H. P. I. (1974)Opisthobranch mollusks from Barbados. Bulletin of Marine Science 24(3): 498-532. [misidentified as Trinchesia perca].
• Redfern. C., 2001. Bahamian Seashells: a Thousand Species from Abaco, Bahamas.
Rudman, W.B., 2003 (February 22) Cuthona barbadiana Edmunds & Just, 1983. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/cuthbarb
