Platydoris formosa from Samoa
September 12, 2000
From: Don Barclay
Hello Bill,
Thanks for looking at the little Diniatys. I'll send you a photo of the empty shell when I get it clean (if I don't crush it).
No more micro-bubbles tonight. Here's a big nudibranch collected about 2200 local time, 4 September 2000, on top of the reef at Faga'alu, west Pago Pago Harbor. It looks a lot like Platydoris cruenta, but all of the P. cruenta I've seen here are orange-splotched with the brown hair-like markings. They also have brown or orange tipped rhinophores. This big guy, 128mm long, has very crimson red rhinophores on white, retractable stalks, and blood red spots on a mottled background without any of the usual markings. Is it an unusual P. cruenta or something else?
Thanks for your help,
Don
n5ols@samoatelco.com
Barclay, D., 2000 (Sep 12) Platydoris formosa from Samoa. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2971
Dear Don,
Messages like this just make me realise what is not on the Forum! I can't believe any Indo-Pacific species of Platydoris have made it yet. Your animal is Platydoris formosa. It is very like Platydoris scabra but with big red spots, just like Platydoris cruenta is P. striata with red spots.
To answer your question I have prepared pages on three of these species. I can't find a good photo of P. striata so if anyone can help out I would be gratful.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.
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