Hypselodoris? from southern France

October 6, 2001
From: Erwin Koehler


Dear Bill,
The attached one has been recently identified
by Gery Parent (France) by studies of the radula as Hypselodoris fontandraui, but I still have my doubts...I can find NO Hypselodoris with gills like that on the web (the English term is missing, is it branched gills?)
The shot is by Jean-Pierre Bielecki from Sthn France, size ~ 5 cm, depth 21m, July 2000.

I had IDed this one as Hypselodoris cf. villafranca, but with doubts, if this genus (!) is right.
Erwin

Erwin@medslugs.de

Koehler, E., 2001 (Oct 6) Hypselodoris? from southern France. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5165

Dear Erwin,
I can understand your doubts. Apart from the gills, it certainly looks like a species of Hypselodoris and in external colouration it fits the descriptions and illustrations in Ortea, Valdes & Garcia-Gomez very well. One other possibility would be H. picta but the radular morphology of the two species is rather different so if Gery Parent has had a look at the radula and decided it looks like H. fontandraui I am happy to accept that.

Now about the gills. Chromodorids usually have what I have called 'simple' gills, which basically means there is no branching. In a few cases irregular secondary branches can occur, but it is not usual for any species. In most other dorids, the gills are usually tripinnate which means they have secondary and tertiary branches on the gills. In this animal the gills are showing a regular pattern of secondary branching. I have no explanation for this, but think it is a developmental anomaly in this animal rather than evidence of a strange evolutionary off-shoot.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Oct 6). Comment on Hypselodoris? from southern France by Erwin Koehler. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5165

Factsheet

Hypselodoris fontandraui

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