Trapania brunnea
Rudman, 1987

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Family: Goniodorididae

DISTRIBUTION

Southeastern Australia from New South Wales, Lord Howe Island, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia. Also known from northern New Zealand.

PHOTO

Upper & Lower Right: Lower right photo showing uniform nature of background coloration of the mantle. Flinders, Westernport Bay, Victoria, March 1986.
Lower Left: Clovelly, Sydney, New South Wales, October 1978.
PHOTOS: Bill Rudman.

The body is dark brown with sparsely scattered irregular white spots. There are a number of symmetrically arranged white patches and streaks as seen in the photographs. Both the anterior and posterior lateral processes are dark brown except for a basal region, and the tip, which are both translucent clear with white patches. It grows to 18mm long alive. The dark brown body with white patches is quite distinctive. It is somewhat similar in colour to Trapania benni but in that species the background colour is a paler reddish brown with a close covering of yellow or white specks. There are also larger yellow spots in the white patches. They differ considerably in tooth morphology.

Reference:
• Rudman,W.B.(1987). The genus Trapania (Nudibranchia: Goniodorididae) in the Indo-West Pacific. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 53: 189-212.
• Willan, R.C. (1989) First record of the nudibranch Trapania brunnea Rudman in New Zealand waters with comments on intraspecific variation in the species. The Veliger, 32(2): 182-184.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2001 (April 4) Trapania brunnea Rudman, 1987. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/trapbrun

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