Hypselodoris picta verdensis from Príncipe Island
June 10, 2006
From: Peter Wirtz
During an expedition to the island of Príncipe (Gulf of Guinea, eastern central Atlantic) in February and March 2004, marine invertebrates were photographed and collected in a depth range of 0 - 60 m. One of the nudibranchs encountered, not previously recorded for the area was Hypselodoris picta verdensis Ortea, Valdés and García-Gómez, 1996
Three different individuals of about 7 cm length were encountered during three different dives in the area of Bom Bom Island, during daytime, on vertical rock faces in a depth range of 1 - 10 m. Hypselodoris picta is a variable species living on both sides of the Atlantic. The subspecies H. picta verdensis is known from the Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé and southern Angola (Ortea et al. 1996).
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Wirtz, P. 2004. A note on nudibranchs (Mollusca Opisthobranchia) from Príncipe Island (eastern central Atlantic). Arquipélago. Life and Marine Sciences, 21A: 81-82.
Peter Wirtz
biomar@dragoeiro.uma.pt
Wirtz, P., 2006 (Jun 10) Hypselodoris picta verdensis from Príncipe Island. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15607Dear Peter,
Thanks very much for this photo. It looks almost identical, if slightly darker, to Malcolm Edmunds' (1981) description of his Hypselodoris tema, a species which Ortea et al (1996) also considered a subspecies of Hypselodoris picta. In fact Edmund's photo (Fig 12 D) of a 90 mm animal from Ghana is very similar. Cape Verde Islands aren't that far from Ghana, so it seems strange to me that two 'subspecies' are necessary. If we look at the photos of H. picta tema on the Forum we can see the variability Edmunds described from Ghana is identical to the variability in specimens from Senegal. I am not sure what to say about the variant from Equatorial Guinea [message #8158] but it looks identical to another animal from Ghana, pictured in Ortea et al (1996: Fig 10F).
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Edmunds, M. (1981) Opisthobranchiate Mollusca from Ghana: Chromodorididae. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 72(2): 175-201.
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Ortea, J., Valdés, A. & and García-Gómez, J.C. (1996) Revisión de las especies atlánticas de la familia Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) de grupo cromático azul. [Review of the Atlantic species of the family Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) of the blue chromatic group.] Avicennia, 1996, Suppl. 1: 1-165.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
