Thuridilla indopacifica
Gosliner, 1995

Order: SACOGLOSSA
Superfamily: ELYSIOIDEA
Family: Elysiidae

DISTRIBUTION

Known from South Africa, Seychelles Ids and Western Australia.

PHOTO

Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia, Indian Ocean. Depth: 7 m. Length: 5 mm. 29 December 2004. silty bottom; on underside of rock covered with algae. Photographer: Kristin Anderson

The body is translucent green with scattered opaque white spots, very small in some animals, larger in others. The parapodia have a thin brownish black edge, then a broad band of yellow or orange, and then a band of black which has extensions at regular intervals down into the green part of the parapodia, In the spaces between the blackish extensions are bright blue bands which form a fourth, broken, band along the parapodial margin.  The head is blue with a centrally placed Y-shaped opaque white patch, the arms of the Y extending up onto the rhinophores. The above the white, the rhinophores have bands of blue, black, orange-yellow and black. The anterior margin of the foot has a similar group of coloured bands. This species has been named 'indopacifica ' although at present its range is restricted to the Indian Ocean. Grows to at least 18 mm in length (Gosliner, 1987).

NOTE: Thuridilla sp. 3 [see message #13303 ] may be a colour form.

• Gosliner, T.M. (1987) Nudibranchs of Southern Africa. A Guide to the Opisthobranch Molluscs of Southern Africa. Sea Challengers / Jeff Hamann : Tokyo. 136pp.
• Gosliner, T.M. (1995) The genus Thuridilla (Opisthobranchia: Elysiidae) from the tropical Indo-Pacific, with a revision of ther phylogeny and systematics of the Elysiidae. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 49(1): 1-54.

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