Elysia hirasei
Baba, 1955

Order: SACOGLOSSA
Superfamily: ELYSIOIDEA
Family: Elysiidae

DISTRIBUTION

Known previously from Japan. Reported on Forum from Thailand and Hong Kong.

PHOTO

Locality: Marine Reserve, Hong Kong, China, South China Sea. in fish tank. Length: ~3 cm. Dec 2004. Photographer: Andy Cornish

The body is translucent with a greenish tinge all over from the algal material in the fine digestive gland branches ramifying throughout the body. Creamy brown pigmentation forms a band which runs from the tip of one rhinophore, across the head and out to the tip of the other rhinophore. There is also a cramy brown band of irregular width at the edge of the parapodia, broader on the outer side than on the inside. Patches of the same colour are scattered over the outside of the parapodia, and a few are found on the inside. There is a black median band on the head running from the rhinophores back to the parapodia. There is also a distinctive black patch on each side at the anterior extremity of the parapodia. The patch divides into two lines on each side running forward above and below the eye.

This species was identified (Baba, 1949: Pl VIII, fig 25) as Elysia viridis, but Baba (1955) renamed it E. hirasei.

• Baba, K (1949) Opisthobranchia of Sagami Bay collected by His Majesty The Emperor of Japan. Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo. 194pp., 50 Pls.
• Baba, K. (1955) Opisthobranchia of Sagami Bay, Supplement. Iwanami Shoten: Tokyo. 59pp., 20 Plates.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2005 (April 14) Elysia hirasei Baba, 1955. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/elyshira

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