Phyllidiella nigra mating
April 28, 2008
From: Kenneth Yong
Dear Bill,
My wife was going through some of our older photos to see if she could find feeding nudibranchs, and we came across this one of a pair of Phyllidiella nigra mating. I noticed that you seem not to have too many photos of this species. I must say that the only dive locality (so far) where I've found it to be almost abundant is Lang Tengah island off the coast of Terengganu, Malaysia. I've seen it in 6 inches of water among coral rubble and on a sandy bottom less than 10 feet from shore, where there're also huge aggregations of Plakobranchus ocellatus literally carpeting the bottom.
Locality: Lang Tengah Island, Blue Coral divesite, 5 m, Terengganu, Malaysia, South China Sea, 24 July 2006, Fringing coral reef. Length: 5-7 cm. Photographer: Kenneth Yong.
Once again, thank you so much for running what is by far my favorite website!
Cordially,
Kenneth
kyong67@tiscali.it
Yong, K., 2008 (Apr 28) Phyllidiella nigra mating. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20663
Thanks Kenneth,
and please thank your wife for looking for feeding photos! We don't have many photos of phyllidiids mating so any records are welcome. I am afraid identifying some phyllidiids just from photos is difficult so I have some doubts that this is Phyllidiella nigra, as its tubercles are almost all compound, or at least divided. In P. nigra they should be simple. It is possibly Phyllidiopsis burni, which has compound tubercles, but I am not sure. I'll leave it as P. nigra but only because I am not sure where else to put it. It is possibly just Phyllidiella pustulosa.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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