'Sea goddess' from Cayman Ids

Dear Rod,
Your animal is almost certainly the same as the one in Humann's book [Hypselodoris sp. p235]. It is also identical to the animal Thompson, (1980) identified from Jamaica as Hypselodoris bayeri but as Thompson notes, his animal had considerable colour differences from H. bayeri as originally described by Marcus & Marcus 1967 from Florida. True H. bayeri has deep blue rhinophores and a series of yellow lonmgitudinal lines down the back. It also lacks the break in the mantle border halfway down each side. Thompson reports numerous live specimens creeping over coral sand near Discovery Bay and Port Royal (16-30mm long). He twice found them feeding on a dark brown encrusting sponge.

I agree with Humann that this is probably an undescribed species. Apart from the general colour pattern, distinctive features of the colour pattern include the white rhinophore clubs with blue tips, the simple white gills edged in blue, and the regular pattern of dark patches down the mantle, including the pair midway down the mantle which form a break in the white band around the mantle edge.

If you have other photos of slugs from the Caribbean, even those you have identified, they would be of great interest to Forum visitors. As you will have noticed out knowledge of the Caribbean fauna is not that great, and will only improve as we learn more about colour variation and geographic distribution of the species found there.

• Thompson, T.E. (1980) Jamaican opisthobranch molluscs: II. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 46(1): 74-99.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman