'Berthella ilisima' and shell from Costa Rica
May 30, 2002
From: Peter Ajtai
Dear Bill,
I found this Berthella ilisima off of the Peninsula Santa Elena in northwestern Costa Rica. It was under a scallop shell at 90ft. I've also included photos of the top and bottom views of the sea slug's internal shell. The way I understand it, a lot of the Berthella and Berthellina have to be identified using the internal shell. Is there any other way to identify these guys, and do you know of any references that have either photos or drawings of the shells?
thank you and cheers,
Peter Ajtai.
ajtai@slugophile.org
Note: See Lucas Cervera's message suggesting that Berthellina quadridens is the correct name for Caribbean specimens, and second message suggesting that east Pacific animals were B. ilisima
Thanks Peter,
If this is 'ilisima' then it may be a species of Berthellina rather than Berthella. Marcus & Marcus (1967) proposed a subspecies Berthellina engeli ilisima for an orange Berthellina from the Gulf of California. They considered the shape and shell sculpture to differ from that of typical specimens from the east Atlantic. I don't think anything has recently been published on this genus but I may be mistaken. I do know that Lucas Cervera and others have been revising the genus. Hopefully someone will let us know what the current status of this name is.
A couple of useful references would be
• Gosliner, T.M. & Bertsch, H. (1988). A review of the genus Berthella (Opisthobranchia: Notaspidea) from the Pacific Coast of North America. The Veliger, 31: 46-67.
• Marcus, Er. & Marcus, Ev (1967) American opisthobranch mollusks. Part 2, Opisthobranchs from the Gulf of California. Studies Tropical Oceanography, Miami 6(1-2): 141-256. (Figs 1-95)
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
Related messages
-
Re: Berthellina in eastern Pacific
From: Juan Lucas Cervera, September 28, 2002 -
Berthellina engeli from the Sea of Cortez
From: Jeff Goddard, December 29, 2000
