Flabellina marcusorum
Gosliner & Kuzirian, 1990

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Flabellinidae

DISTRIBUTION

Two disjunct populations. One on the west coast of central America, the other from the Caribbean coast of South America to Brazil.

PHOTO

UPPER: Playa Mismaloya, Bahia de Banderas, 24 feet deep. Jalisco and Nayarit, Mexico [Pacific Coast]. March, 2002, 9 mm long. Photo: Alicia Hermosillo. LOWER: southern Brazil. Photo: Marcelo Krause.

The general body colour is a translucent pink or orange. The oral tentacles, foor corners, rhinophores and cerata are similarly coloured but have an opaque white tip, followed by a broad purplish band. The tip of the cerata may sometimes be opaque yellow rather than white. The rhinophores bear up to 100 papillae on the posterior face. Grows to 30mm long. Originally identified from both Brazil and the Gulf of California (Marcus & Marcus, 1961, 1970) as Coryphellina rubrolineata, this species has an extensive distribution from southern Brazil to the Caribbean, and in the eastern Pacific.

Compare with Flabellina arveloi, a recently described species from west Africa, which is very similarly coloured.

Reference:
• Gosliner, T.M. & Kuzirian, A.M. (1990) Two new species of Flabellinidae (Opisthobranchia: Aeolidacea) from Baja California. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 47(1): 1-15.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2000 (September 13) Flabellina marcusorum Gosliner & Kuzirian, 1990. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/flabmarc

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