Glossodoris pullata
Rudman, 1995

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

DISTRIBUTION

Known only from New Caledonia

PHOTO

Upper: Passe d'Ouaraï, near La Foa, W Lagoon, New Caledonia, 17m, 23 December 1985, submarine arch, 50mm long alive, AM C167979. Holotype. Photo: L Faucompré. Lower: SEM of radula. A, central region. B, showing central region and right side of section of radula;   Scale bar: A = 20 µm. B = 100 µm. AM C167979. Photo: A.C. Miller.

The background colour of the mantle is translucent white. There is a reticulate pattern of brown covering all but the outer part of the mantle skirt. The reticulate pattern is very irregular and could be described as brown with a dense mottling of irregularly sized white patches, many slightly raised. Outside the reticulate region is a broad band of opaque white which merges with a narrow blackish band at the mantle edge. The rhinophore pockets and the gill pocket are edged in black. The rhinophore stalk is opaque white and the club is black, except for a translucent white tip. The gills are translucent white with some opaque white mottling, and the edges are lined with dark brownish-black. The foot is also lined black.

There is a broad mantle overlap with the edge of the skirt being thrown into sinuous folds, with one major semi-permanent fold halfway down each side of the body. The dorsal surface of the mantle, especially in the central region, has many slightly raised bumps corresponding to the opaque white patches. The gills are arranged in a horse-shoe pattern around the anal papilla, each end of the horse-shoe forming a slightly raised spiral. The basal third of the gills are quadrangular in section but they thin to a simple planar structure in the outer two-thirds. The radular formula of the specimen, 50 mm long alive, is 36.0.36 x 57. There is no central tooth, and the lateral teeth on each side have a long hook-shaped cusp.

• Rudman, W.B. (1995) The Chromodorididae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Indo-West Pacific: further species from New Caledonia and the Noumea romeri colour group. Molluscan Research, 16: 1-43.

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