Chromodoris vicina? from Sth Africa

Dear Valda,
I am not sure that your South African animal is Chromodoris vicina. Some years ago I decided that C. vicina from east Africa was the same as C. tennentana from Sri Lanka. The yellow (orange) spots and dark purple (black) spots seem to differ in proportion and arrangement, but they are possibly variations of each other. I would be interested to know if the underside of the mantle is white or has some colour. In some species the whole of the underside of the mantke at the head end is purple. The foot in animals from Tanazania had a marginal row of dark spots and a submarginal row of yellow spots. In your animals the submarginal yellow spots are present and it is possible that the marginal row of dark spots has become the purple edge to the foot.

Similar colour variants occur in a similarly coloured western Pacific species, Chromodoris collingwoodi, which I will try and finish a page about this week.

Sorry I can't be definite. It's only as we begin to get some idea of the variation and geographic range of these animals that we begin to make sense of these relationships. That's why I am happy to publish photos of the same species from different localities.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.