Nembrotha kubaryana - Exmouth, Australia

August 1, 2005
From: Mick Tait

Bill,
Can you please confirm the identification of this species as Nembrotha kubaryana? I have conflicting information to work with. I have a book that identifies this as Nembrotha nigerrima Bergh, 1877. I did a search on Nembrotha nigerrima on the Forum, with nil result. Thank you in advance.

Locality: Lighthouse Bay - Exmouth, Western Australia, Indian Ocean. Depth: 12 m. Length: 50 mm. 02 May 2005. Reef. Photographer: Mick Tait

Mick Tait

mick@bluesphere.com.au

Tait, M., 2005 (Aug 1) Nembrotha kubaryana - Exmouth, Australia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14297

Dear Mick,
I was going to include synonyms for each species - that is names now considered invalid - but it's seldom simple. While in simple cases, such as Nembrotha nigerrima, the name just applies to a colour form of N. kubaryana. However sometimes through confusion, a name has been use for more than one species, so I would need to explain the various misuses. While this would be valuable, I would need to find some volunteers to do it, as it would be a very big job.

Concerning N. kubaryana. At present we consider the species ranges in colour form from green pustules to orange-red pustules. In all cases there is an orange tp orange-red border to the foot and around the rhinophore pockets. The rhinophore has a similar colored tip.

In your photo, the animal seems to be feeding on a stalked colony, which could well be a species of the ascidian Sigillina, which is reported to be its preferred prey. If so, the colony seems to be lot larger than those previously illustrated in Forum messages.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Aug 1). Comment on Nembrotha kubaryana - Exmouth, Australia by Mick Tait. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14297

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