Noumea sulphurea from New South Wales
March 31, 2001
From: Erik Schloegl
Dear Bill,
Here are two photos of a species which I tentatively identified as Noumea sulphurea from one of Neville Coleman's books. Though I'm surprised that it's not yet on the Forum, since he cites you as the person who described the species...
The upper photo was taken on 15 April, 1999 at Camp Cove, Sydney Harbour. The depth was 4m, the substrate rocky reef.
The second photo was taken on 18 March, 2000 at a dive site called "The Docks", inside Jervis Bay, New South Wales. The depth was 15m, the substrate rocky reef.
Best wishes,
Erik
Erik.Schlogl@uts.edu.au
Schloegl, E., 2001 (Mar 31) Noumea sulphurea from New South Wales. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4068Dear Erik,
Thanks for the photos of this old favourite. I am afraid it's not the only 'local' animal that should be on the Forum but isn't. Unfortunately there are only 24 hours in the day. I have been avoiding these yellow Noumea species as I knew they would take some time to add to the Forum. The southeastern Australian ones have interesting geographic colour variants, which I presume is probably a case of mimicry, and so I couldn't just add one, they all needed to go up at the same time.
In particular compare the Bass Strait colour form of Noumea sulphurea with Noumea crocea and the yellow colour form of Noumea haliclona. Both N. haliclona and N. sulphurea appear to have a colour form which matches that of Noumea closei in the one graphic area that the three species overlap. Perhaps a coincidence, but I tend to think it is at a 'coincidence' at least worth considering a little more fully.
I have also prepared a Noumea flava Colour Group Page to make it easier to compare these yellow chromdorids.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
