Tritonia bayeri from the Caribbean
September 27, 2000
From: Barry Lipman
Hi,
This is the second of two critters I found on a very popular dive site on Grand Cayman last week [September 2000]. The depth was about 50 feet. Both were found at night on the same dive, on coral or on a sponge, where the sand meets the reef. They are very small, 1/2 to 3/8 inch or so.
Best wishes,
Barry Lipman
b_lipman@hotmail.com
Lipman, B., 2000 (Sep 27) Tritonia bayeri from the Caribbean. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3079Dear Barry,
This is a soft coral-feeding nudibranch of the family Tritoniidae. I am pretty sure it is Tritonia bayeri but I am relying on the original scientific description of the animal and that unfortunately did not give very much information on the colour of the living animal. If we are lucky, someone with a personal knowledge of the Caribbean fauna will either confirm this identifcation or let me know I am wrong. So if you don't visit the site regularly, keep a watch on the site for a couple of weeks.
If you have further photos of this animal it would be useful to have a clearer view of the head to check the shape of the oral veil, and the 'tail' to check whether there is a white line down the midline. Tritonia bayeri has about 4 long finger-like tentacles around the edge of the oral veil and it has a white median line down the posterior tip of the foot. I think I can see both these characters in your photo but confirmation would be useful.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.
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