Re: Tambja eliora from Ecuador

Dear Ali,
I rely on comments from 'local experts' especially in regions such as the eastern Pacific, where there is so little published work. It's possible that the spotted animal is a separate species, but the only difference is that the blue lines have broken into a string of blue spots. It would certainly be interesting to confirm the suggestion that the colour pattern changes from lines to spots the further south you go down the east Pacific coast. Hopefully if Marta contacts Peter or Soledad, some specimens could be obtained. However I think that when you have very similarly coloured 'forms' like this, living in close geographical proximity, it is vital to study the variability of the whole population before deciding how many species there are.

I would appreciate some locality data for this photo.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman