Mexichromis kempfi
(Ev. Marcus, 1970)

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Chromodorididae

DISTRIBUTION

Caribbean to Sao Paulo, Brazil.

PHOTO

Upper: Santa Marta, Colombia - Caribbean coast. 15mm long. Photo: Phanor Montoya. Lower left: Sketches of holotype by Dr Marc Kempf (from Marcus, 1970). Lower right: Laje e Santos, off Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo: Armando de Luca Jr.

Note added 4 March 2005: Previously on the Forum as Chromodoris kempfi.

This species is unlikely to be a species of Chromodoris. from the description of the jaw rodlets - described as multicuspid, and the small and narrow radular ribbon (50 x 35.0.35), it is most likely to be a species of Mexichromis.

It was described by Marcus from two specimens from nthn Brazil, the colour description being based on the sketches, reproduced here, and the colour notes of the collector, Dr Marc Kempf, after who the species was named. The animal is blue with an orange mantle border and a white mantle midline. Around the mantle border, Kempf described "between the orange and the blue is a band of seven darker blue and seven white spots, on either side". The foot, sides of body, gills and rhinophores are blue. Armando de Luca's photo from Sao Paulo, matches that description well.  I would consider Phanor Montoya's colour form from Colombia to be a lighter colour form of this species, and a link to the even whiter animals described on the Forum from Florida [message #1415 ].

It is possible that  a new species, Mexichromis molloi Ortea & Valdés in Ortea, Valdés & García-Gómez, 1996,  from Venezuela, is also a colour variation. It has a blue mantle, with a white median line, and orange-yellow mantle border, inside of which is a dark blue band and then a white band. The gills and rhinophores are blue and there is a single white line along each side of the blue body.

• Marcus, E. (1970) Opisthobranchs from northern Brazil. Bulletin of Marine Science, 24: 922-951.
• Ortea, J., Valdés, A. & and García-Gómez, J.C. (1996) Revisión de las especies atlánticas de la familia Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) de grupo cromático azul. [Review of the Atlantic species of the family Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) of the blue chromatic group.] Avicennia, 1996, Suppl. 1: 1-165.
  

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