Doto orcha from the Red Sea
February 2, 2006
From: Binyamin Koretz
Dear Bill,
Since you and other Forum contributors have been sharing a lot of material on Doto spp, I would like to share our photos of what we think is Doto orcha Yonow, 2000.
I think that it's fairly rare, but since it's hard to see, I couldn't say whether that's the real reason why it's seldom seen.
Locality: Eilat, "University", Israel, Red Sea (Gulf of Eilat). Depth: 6 m. Length: 8 mm. 15 July 2005. corals. Photographer: Binyamin and Shulamit Koretz
Best regards
Binyamin
binyamin@koretz.net
Dear Binyamin,
It's nice to get a Doto from elsewhere in the world. I suspect you are right in identifying this as Doto orcha but since it was described from a single specimen - and we know how difficult Doto species are to distinguish - it is difficult to be 100% sure if the differences are just part of the normal intraspecies variation or not. For example your animal is proportionally much longer than Yonow's, but I don't know if that is just because yours was crawling and Yonow's was at rest on a hydroid. In your animal the cerata are proportionally much smaller compared to the size of the body than in Yonow's. Also she described a distinct beige band down the dorsal midline, which is absent in your animal, and yours show a distinct dark spot at the inner base of each cerata.
I suspect they are the same, but it illustrates the problems when species are described on single specimens.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
