Hypselodoris picta
(Schultz, 1836)

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Chromodorididae

DISTRIBUTION

Atlantic - west atlantic from Florida to Brazil, Caribbean; east Atlantic from Spain to West Africa, Mediterranean.

PHOTO

RIGHT: ek076703: Italy, Elba Is., Capoliveri, divesite "Stella" size 3 cm, depth 28 m , July 12, 1997; ek075601: Italy, Elba Is., Capoliveri, divesite "Fonza" size 5 cm, depth 5 m , July 06, 1997; ek109227: Spain, Cala Joncols, divesite "La Virgen" size 45 mm, depth 13 m , April 27, 2000. Photos: Erwin Koehler.
LOWER RIGHT: (marco01) France, Antibes, divesite "Cap d'Antibes" size unrecorded, depth 14 m, July 1998, Photo: Armand di Marco, e-mail: armand.dimarco@ci.educ.lu
LOWER LEFT: (ek086520): Spain, Cala Joncols, divesite "El Bisbal" size 6 cm, depth 14 m , May 01, 1998. Photo: Erwin Koehler.

Hypselodoris picta is the largest chromodorid from the Mediterranean Sea and is widely distributed on both sides of the Atlantic. It varies greatly in colour and pattern and consequently has been known under many names including
Hypselodoris elegans (Cantraine, 1835)
Hypselodoris webbi (d'Orbigny, 1839)
Hypselodoris valenciennesi (Cantraine, 1841)
Hypselodoris edenticulata (White, 1952)
Hypselodoris tema Edmunds, 1981.

Ortea, Valdés and García-Gómez (1996) have recently revised this group of chromodorids and have suggested five subspecies, and Troncoso, Garcia & Urgorri (1998) have suggested six, but there do seem to be a number of colour forms which do not fit into their subspecies very successfully. At least two 'subspecies', picta and webbi have wide sympatric distributions on either side of the tropical Atlantic which is not what one would expect from subspecies:
Hypselodoris picta picta (Schultz, 1836)
Hypselodoris picta webbi (d'Orbigny, 1839)
Hypselodoris picta azorica Ortea, Valdes & Garcia-Gomez, 1996
Hypselodoris picta tema Edmunds, 1981.
Hypselodoris picta verdensis Ortea, Valdes & Garcia-Gomez, 1996
Hypselodoris picta lajensis Troncoso, Garcia & Urgorri (1998)

Hypselodoris picta is the only eastern Atlantic species of Hypselodoris, other than Hypselodoris villafranca, with more than two parallel yellow lines on the dorsum. Juvenile specimens have normally three lines, whereas in the adults the pattern is more complicated with numerous broken or entire lines. It is also characteristic of this species that two of the dorsal lines reach the rhinophoral sheaths. In adult specimens they form a yellow circle around the edge of the rhinophoral sheath and continue forward. In juvenile specimens, like this in the picture, the yellow circles are not formed yet. In addition, juvenile specimens have the mantle margin is surrounded by a white area. The dorsal yellow lines of both juveniles and adults reach the gill sheath but they never form a circle around it. Other distinctive features of H. picta are the uniformly dark blue rhinophores, with no yellow or white pigment, and the branchial leaves with the external rachis yellow." ...Angel Valdes. [See message below].

Ortea et al (1996) note previous observations of it feeding on the sponge Dysidea fragilis in the Mediterranean.

References:
• Ortea, J., Valdés, A. & and García-Gómez, J.C. (1996) Revisión de las especies atlánticas de la familia Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) de grupo cromático azul. [Review of the Atlantic species of the family Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) of the blue chromatic group.] Avicennia, 1996, Suppl. 1: 1-165.
• Troncoso, J.S., Garcia, F.J. & Urgorri, V.,(1998) Anatomical data on rare Hypselodoris picta (Schultz, 1836) (Gastropoda, Doridacea) from the coast of Brazil with description of a new subspecies. Bulletin of Marine Science, 63(1): 133-141.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2000 (June 1) Hypselodoris picta (Schultz, 1836). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/hypspict

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