Endemic SE Australian chromodorids

June 1, 1999
From: Austin

Dear Dr. Rudman:

Hi, this is Austin again.

I just want to tell you again how much I love the Sea Slug Forum. Something divine in the diversity and quality of image representation. I just feel this inspiring passion to understand them. I remember holding the large peach-colored Tritonia from the Pacific-Northwest United States. One would shake his moustached head back and forth. Several of them had mutations, as the place from which they were collected near Seattle had been at one time an industrial effluent area. And I want to learn to protect them from Man's proclivity for habitat destruction. Public awareness seems a wonderful start.

On one of the Hypselodoris posts, there was a mention of a 1999 Gosliner publication about Hypselodoris. Would you by chance have that reference?
__________________
I've been reading your J. Moll. Stud. "Purpose in Pattern: the Evolution of colour in chromodorid nudibranchs" and am looking to put together photos of color groups for my own visual comparison. I have the drawing set in Figure 1, but it's photocopied and thus without color. I was wondering if you have :

A PHOTO of H. bennetti?
Or PHOTOs of Chromodoris fidelis (22) and Noumea haliclona (40) diagrammed in Figure 2?

Or PHOTOS of
Digidentis perplexa (41),
Chromodoris ambiguus (49) or C. alternata (53) from Figure 4?

Thanks,
Austin.

jaustin@bio.fsu.edu

Austin, 1999 (Jun 1) Endemic SE Australian chromodorids. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/901

Dear Austin,
Thanks for your kind words about the Forum. Sorry I'm a bit slow replying but I decided it was time to post pictures of some of the southeastern Australian endemics you were asking about. I have listed them in a separate message posted today. I'm afraid Noumea haliclona will have to wait as it is a complex of colour morphs, some of which occur together and others which are restricted to discrete geographic regions.

Concerning the Hypselodoris paper. I have been meaning to sing the praises of this major work but I'm afraid I never seem to have enough time in the day. It is an exhaustive review of the genus, describing a number of new species. I wish all taxonomic studies were so comprehensive and easy to follow. Congratulations to Terry Gosliner and Rebecca Johnson.

Gosliner, T.M. & Johnson, R.F. (1999). Phylogeny of Hypselodoris (Nudibranchia: Chromodorididae) with a review of the monophyletic clade of Indo-Pacific species, including the descriptions of twelve new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 125: 1-114.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 1999 (Jun 1). Comment on Endemic SE Australian chromodorids by Austin. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/901

Factsheet

Mimicry - red-spotted chromodorids

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