Dendrodoris atromaculata? from Western Australia
August 29, 2007
From: Bruce Potter
Dear Bill,
I found this critter under a jetty last weekend and have not been able to identify it at all. I found it quite difficult to photograph because of its colour and texture, all the shots turned out like poor quality paintings instead of high quality photos.
Locality: Rockingham, 6 metres, Western Australia, Indian Ocean, 11 August 2007, Mucky under Jetty. Length: 30 mm. Photographer: Bruce Potter.
Regards
Bruce Potter.
bandppotter@bigpond.com
Dear Bruce,
I can understand your problems - the tubercles on its mantle fall into two size categories and their colours make them merge into the background. When I first saw your photo my immediate thought was Hoplodoris estrelyado but on a closer look, the tubercles are quite different. Some are relatively short and tapering while others have a narrow stalk and then enlarge to a large multituberculate club, with a tapering flagellum at the tip.
I suspect this is Dendrodoris atromaculata, but as you will see in the Fact Sheet photos kindly provided by Gilianne Brodie, that species is usually a yellowish colour with large black patches. However the tubercles are so distinctive that I suspect your animal is a colour form. Without any information on its anatomy I could of course be quiet wrong. This is another example where a photo of the underside and the area around the mouth would have been very useful, because the head of a dendrodorid is very distinctive.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
