Re: Risbecia ghardaqana from Hurghada, Egypt

October 30, 2007
From: Yahia Mokhtar


Concerning message #20912:

I think I had a fairly recent photo of  Risbecia ghardaqana this weekend on 27 m depth, North of Octopos Rock, Musandam, Oman.

Have a look, and mind the poor illumination, the flash was not effective at this depth at noon.

Locality: Octopos Rock - Musandam, 27m, Oman, Musandam, Indian Ocean, 26 October 2007, gravel. Photographer: Yahia Mokhtar.

Yahia Mokhtar

yahia@adma.ae

Mokhtar, Y., 2007 (Oct 30) Re: Risbecia ghardaqana from Hurghada, Egypt. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21028

Dear Yahia,
This is not R. ghardaqana but one of the other species of yellow-spotted chromodorid found in your region. It is R. pulchella and your photo alongside shows some of the features which distinguish the two species.

Firstly, in R. pulchella the mantle widens out at the head end to form a sort of lobe as we can clearly see in your photo, while in R. ghardaqana there is no lobe.  Similarly your animals have a pattern of smudged purple patches on the mantle which are a feature of R. pulchella but absent in R. ghardaqana. Also in R. ghardaqana there are only a few gills and they do not vibrate rhythmically, while in R. pulchella there are many gills and they do vibrate. In your photo there are many gills, and although we can't be sure in a still photo, they certainly look as though they are waving from side to side.

Until Greg Brown's recent message I was beginning to wonder whether I was ever going to see an animal that fitted the description of R. ghardaqana, so I can assure you that you are not the first person who has mistaken R. pulchella for this species.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Oct 30). Comment on Re: Risbecia ghardaqana from Hurghada, Egypt by Yahia Mokhtar. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21028

Factsheet

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