West African Navanax aenigmaticus

March 14, 2007
From: M. Schroedl, P. Ryall, T. Gertin, T. Neusser

Hi Bill,

Here are some pics of living specimens of what Edmunds (1968) described as Chelidonura nyanyana from the Ghana coast near Accra. We found them some 250 km more to the southwest, along the rocky capes around Princesstown. One specimen (5 cm) was crawling in a tide pool, another smaller one (3.5 cm) was found under a stone at 5m depth. Quite similar to what is Navanax aenigmaticus in Chile and Peru, but I've never seen such yellow or orange markings along the parapodia border in specimens from there [message #19659 ]. Nestor Ardila's small Caribbean specimen, however, may show such markings. Might N. aenigmaticus occur in the eastern Atlantic as well?

  • Edmunds, M. 1968. Opisthobranchiate Mollusca from Ghana. Proc. Malac. Soc. Lond., 38: 83-100.

Michael Schrödl, Peter Ryall, Ted Gertin, Timea Neusser

schroedl@zi.biologie.uni-muenchen.de

Schroedl, M., Ryall, P., Gertin, T., Neusser, T., 2007 (Mar 14) West African Navanax aenigmaticus. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19658

Dear Michael,

Terry Gosliner considered Malcolm Edmund's C. nyanyana to be the same as N. aenigmaticus and your photos certainly support that view. Certainly from messages on the Forum, most Caribbean specimens have blue and yellow spots along the mantle edge.

  • Gosliner, T. M. (1980) Systematics and phylogeny of the Aglajidae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 68: 325-360.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Mar 14). Comment on West African Navanax aenigmaticus by M. Schroedl, P. Ryall, T. Gertin, T. Neusser. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19658

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Navanax aenigmaticus

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