Bonisa nakaza from False Bay, Sth Africa

June 23, 2005
From: Wilhelm van Zyl

Hi,
To accompany my photo of the nudibranch which looks like Janolus capensis but may be Bonisa nakaza [see message #14092] here are two specimens of Bonisa nakaza, one regular and one orange variant, which I took on the same dive and about the same size.

Locality: Whittle rock, False Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa. Depth: 25 m. Length: 6 cm. Photographer: Wilhelm van Zyl

Regards
Wilhelm

diving@cyberdale.co.za

van Zyl, W., 2005 (Jun 23) Bonisa nakaza from False Bay, Sth Africa. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14113

Dear Wilhelm,
Thanks for these. You will se in the close-up of the cerata that there is no digestive gland duct visible in the cerata. This is how the cerata look in your mystery animal [#14092] suggesting it is also Bonisa. As seen in your other message [#14114], the digestive gland ducts are very obvious in Janolus.

It would be interesting to know whether the white line on the 'tail' is always present in this species and absent in Janolus capensis. It might turn out to be a useful distinguishing feature in the field. As I mentioned elsewhere [#14092], Wayne Florence has identified the bryozoan in your photo as Gigantopora polymorpha.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Jun 23). Comment on Bonisa nakaza from False Bay, Sth Africa by Wilhelm van Zyl. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14113

Factsheet

Bonisa nakaza

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