Re: Thorunna florens for sthn Queensland

Dear Gary,

I presume these are the animals photographed in your earlier message [#20913] in which I agreed the spotted one was probably a strange colour form of N. alboannulata. Clearly I had forgotten about this strange colour form when I answered Bruce Wilkie's message [#19027 ] and tentatively identified his similar animal as Thorunna florens. After having been tricked over many years by some of these small Noumea - Thorunna animals, I hesitate to give confident identifications until I have a look at their anatomy. There are enough examples now of pairs of species which look almost identical externally, but quite different internally, to make me hesitate. Not even the orange patch at the front of the mantle in Thorunna florens is always present, and it can also be found in other species of Thorunna as well.

Certainly your animals with two rows of orange-ringed white spots link quite well with Bruce Wilkie's animals so I'll move it to the N. alboanulata page. But until its anatomy is looked at, I think we should consider any name we give it to be tentative.

Thanks for drawing my attention to my inconsistency
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman