Glossodoris aeruginosa
Rudman, 1995

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Family: Chromodorididae

DISTRIBUTION

New Caledonia, tropical eastern Australia

PHOTO

off Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Depth: 14m. Length: 70mm. Photo: Gary Cobb.

The colour of the mantle is quite complex but is dominated by a regular pattern of raised white patches which vary in size and aspect at different places on the mantle. Each white patch is edged with a narrow brown line. In the mid-region between the gills and the rhinophores, the background is a pale milky blue-green, the white patches are small and rounded and have a tinge of orange brown. The patches are aggregated into clusters leaving some quite large blue-green regions. Outside the central region, on the mantle skirt, the white patches do not have an orange tinge and they are aggregated in radially arranged elongate clusters. In these clusters the brown line around each patch is very faint but there is a dark brown line outlining the whole cluster. This gives the mantle skirt an appearance of large elongate white patches, each edged in brown arranged in radiating pattern. Towards the mantle edge the blue-green background colour is replaced with brown, which forms a broken submarginal band. At the edge of the mantle there is a diffuse bluish band which darkens right at the mantle edge.

The raised rhinophore pockets are translucent brown with scattered whitish patches. The rhinophore stalk is also translucent brown and the rhinophore club is translucent brown with a basal opaque white band. There is a white line down the posterior midline. The smaller gills are translucent orange-brown with large opaque white patches on the flattened outer face, and the larger gills are white. They are edged with a thin black or dark blue line. The gills are basically simple in forms but in larger gills the basal half of the gill is triangular in cross section, with a broad inner face. Some larger gills have one or two small branches.

The underside of the mantle is a translucent orange-brown with scattered white patches. The foot is also mottled white with a bluish-grey reticulate pattern. The mantle edge is slightly folded, and about midway down each side is a characteristic large semi-permanent fold. The rhinophore pockets are smooth but raised, and the rhinophore club is relatively elongate.

Reference:
• Marshall, J.G. & Willan, R.C. (1999) Nudibranchs of Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef.
• Rudman, W.B. (1995) The Chromodorididae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Indo-West Pacific: further species from New Caledonia and the Noumea romeri colour group. Molluscan Research, 16: 1-43.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2004 (February 17) Glossodoris aeruginosa Rudman, 1995. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/glosaeru

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