Diaulula greeleyi
(MacFarland, 1909)

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

DISTRIBUTION

Western Atlantic from Brazil to Sth Carolina. East Pacific [Mexico, Costa Rica].

PHOTO

St. Joseph Bay, Florida, Florida, USA. Atlantic. Depth: less than 1 foot at low tide. Length: 3 inches. 9 April 2005. sandy bottomed sea grass meadow. Photographer: Mike Greenemeier

Large flat dorid with mantle covered in caryophyllidia, giving the back a furry appearance. Mantle yellow to yellowish brown with darker brown patching scattered all over, and some whitish patches around the mantle edge. Both the rhinophore and gill openings are surrounded by a high sheath. The gills are large but simple and unbranched. Underside bright yellow.

Camacho-Garcia & Valdés (2003) transfer this species from Peltodoris  to Diaulula and consider the East Pacific Peltodoris nayarita Ortea & Llera, 1981 to be a synonym, extending its distribution from the western Atlantic to the eastern Pacific.

  • Camacho-Garcia, Y. & Valdés, A.  (2003) Caryophyllidia-bearing dorid nudibranchs (Mollusca Nudibranchia Doridina) from Costa Rica. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 54(4): 65-79.
  • Eyster, L. S. (1980) Distribution and reproduction of shell-less opisthobranchs from South Carolina. Bulletin of Marine Science, 30(3): 580-599.
  • MacFarland, F. M. (1909) The opisthobranchiate Mollusca of the Branner-Agassiz expedition to Brazil. Leland Stanford Junior University Publications, University Series (2):1-104, pls. 1-19.
  • Marcus, Er. (1955) Opisthobranchia from Brazil. Boletim da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciencias e Letras, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Zoology, 207, 20:89-261, pls. 1-30.
  • Marcus, Ev., & Marcus, Er.  (1967) American opisthobranch mollusks. Part I, Tropical American opisthobranchs. Part II, Opisthobranchs from the Gulf of California. Studies in Tropical Oceanography, Miami, 6(1-2):1-256.
  • Valdes, A. (2004) Tropical western Atlantic species of Diaulula Bergh, 1878 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia), with the description of a new species. Contributions in Science, 501: 1-7
  • Zeiller, W. (1974) Tropical Marine Invertebrates of Southern Florida and the Bahama Islands. John Wiley & Sons: New York. 132 pp.
Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2005 (May 2) Diaulula greeleyi (MacFarland, 1909). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/diaugree

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