Elysia cf. canguzua

Order: SACOGLOSSA
Superfamily: ELYSIOIDEA
Family: Elysiidae

PHOTO

Gulf of Mexico, Florida. Photo: Anna L. Bass.

Elysia canguzua was described by Marcus (1955) from the coast of Sao Paulo, Brazil. 3 specimens in June 1953, 20 eating Codium in April 1954. Intertidal. He describes the living colour as 'green, due to the branchings of the liver that are disposed in chiefly longitudinal direction. bright red dots are probably cutaneous gands. There are also groups of brilliant blue spots...." They also describe black pigment which is so 'dense inside the rhinophoral fold .. that the rhinophores appear gray in dorsal view' There is also black pigment on the sides of the head and in some animals it borders the parapodia. The 'rhinophores are very long and rabbit's ear-like'.

Until the species is redescribed from Brazil it is not possible to positively identify the photo from Gulf of Mexico as this species. It has no visible black pigment and the rhinophores are not overly large. The whitish-blue patches are distributed much as in Marcus's drawing of E. canguzua.

References:
• Marcus, Er. (1955) Opisthobranchia from Brazil. Boletim da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciencias e Letras. Universidade de Sao Paulo, Zoologia, 20: 89-261. (Pls. 1-30)
• Marcus, Ev. (1980) Review of western Atlantic Elysiidae (Opisthobranchia Ascoglossa) with a description of a new Elysia species. Bull. Mar. Sci. 30(1): 54-79.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2002 (October 7) Elysia cf. canguzua [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/elyscfcang

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