Aphelodoris luctuosa from New Zealand

March 19, 2003
From: Mark Burnett


Hi Bill,
There seems to be an abundance of Aphelodoris luctuosa in northern New Zealand this year. I was interested in the discussion of colour variations especially considering the pictures from Ian Skipworth of the cream/white colour form. I'm almost tempted to theorise that the further north one goes in NZ, the darker A. luctuosa becomes. Diving at the Poor Knights this year this nudibranch has been present in abundance and I have only seen the dark brown, almost black colour form. The Hauraki Gulf seems to have a much lighter population of a tan colour. In the South Island, at Kaikoura, this nudibranch seems to be mainly white with small amounts of brown.

Unfortunately I don't have any slides from those locations. Of course it may just be that I missed any of a different colour variation at each of these places. I would be interested to learn of any other colour forms at these places.

Both picture were taken at Middle Arch, Poor Knights Ids. 8 March 2003. Depth was 18m and both animals were 7-8cm in length.

Regards,
Mark Burnett

mburnett@actrix.gen.nz

Burnett, M., 2003 (Mar 19) Aphelodoris luctuosa from New Zealand. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/9402

Thanks Mark,
I'm all in favour of theories like this, because it gives you and your colleagues something to prove or disprove. We call a gradual change in a character, like your suggesting, a cline. We ceratinly do see clinal changes in animal colouration, body size, bird song etc, so it would be interesting to find it in a nudibranch. It would certainly be worth getting your friends to look through old photo collections to see if a pattern emerges.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W. B., 2003 (Mar 19). Comment on Aphelodoris luctuosa from New Zealand by Mark Burnett. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/9402

Factsheet

Aphelodoris luctuosa

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