Hypselodoris bayeri - Marcus photo

September 23, 2002
From: Bill Rudman

After posting the recent photos of Hypselodoris sp 5 from the Caribbean. I remembered Eveline Marcus had sent me a few slides of central American chromodorids many years ago.
This photo given to me by her in Dec 1984, identified as Hypselodoris bayeri. The only accompanying data was 'St John, Virgin Ids, Caribbean.' No photographer was identified. I have included this photo as it gives us an idea of Eveline Marcus's concept of this species.

The animal photographed here, from the Virgin Ids, differs in having the yellow lines on the dorsum forming a reticulate pattern while in the photograph of the holotype the yellow lines form a parallel series with only a few cross connections. The other difference is that in the original animal there are small dark spots around the mantle border while in the Virgin Id animal they are replaced by dark transverse lines. Despite these differences, I have included this photo since it was identified as H. bayeri by Eveline Marcus. This species has considerable similarities to Hypselodoris acriba which was described by the same authors in the same paper. Possibly the two species are just colour extremes of the same species.

• Marcus, Er. & Marcus, Ev. (1967) American opisthobranch mollusks. Part 1, Tropical American opisthobranchs. Studies in Tropical Oceanography, Miami, 6(1-2): 1-137. (Figs 1-150, Pl.1, figs 1-9).

Best wishes
Bill Rudman

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