Bonisa nakaza
Gosliner, 1981

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: ARMININA
Family: Zephyrinidae

DISTRIBUTION

Known from the Cape Peninsula [both Atlantic & Pacific coasts] to Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

PHOTO

False Bay, South Africa. Photo: Guido Del Giudice.

The body is broad and roughly oval in outline. The lamellate rhinophores are separated by a slightly wrinkled inter-rhinophoral crest which is triangular in outline, widest anteriorly. The anus opens dorsally in the posterior midline. Quite variable in colour, the body ranges in colour from translucent clear to yellow-orange. The rhinophores have varying amounts of yellow or orange. The cerata show considerable colour variation. Commonly the basal region is yellow with varying amounts of blue towards the tip. Some have a subapical internal concentration of black or dark blue pigment. In other animals, the blue pigment is absent from the cerata, which are translucent white with a yellow or orange tip. Species of Bonisa differ from Janolus in lacking branches of the digestive gland in their cerata. Gosliner (1981) reports that B. nakaza feeds on the heavily calcified bryozoan Tubucellaria levinseni and is found from the shallow sublittoral to 30m in depth. It can grow to 10cm in length.

Reference:
• Gosliner, T.M. (1981) The south African Janolidae (Mollusca, Nudibranchia) with the description of a new genus and two new species. Annals of the South African Museum, 86(1): 1-42.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2002 (February 1) Bonisa nakaza Gosliner, 1981. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/boninaka

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