South African Elysia
April 8, 2010
From: Richard Barnes
Dear Bill
Do you by any chance recognize this tiny (5mm long) Elysia found reasonably commonly on intertidal Zostera capensis in the mouth of the Knysna marine embayment, Western Cape, South Africa (34 04S, 23 04E)?
Locality: Knysna, low spring tide, Rep South Africa, Indian, 1 April 2010, Eel-grass growing on sand. Length: 5 mm. Photographer: RSK Barnes.
Kind regards
Richard
rsb1001@cam.ac.uk
Barnes, R.S.K., 2010 (Apr 8) South African Elysia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23432Dear Richard,
From Terry Gosliner's book, Knysna has a large endemic opisthobranch fauna but also a good number of Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific representatives, so this could be a species described from far afield. I can't find a South African record of an elysiid fitting your animal and the black markings on the head are very distinctive. The only species that comes to mind is Elysia hirasei which was described from Japan but has been recently reported on the Forum from western India [#22747]. The lack of a pinkish ventral patch could well be because of the juvenile nature of your animal.
It's possible I am quite wrong, as we still have a lot of sorting out to in this group, but the pattern of black markings is very distinctive.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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