Noumea sulphurea
Bass Strait colour form
DISTRIBUTION
Southern Australia - Tasmania, Victoria South Australia
PHOTO
UPPER: Sisters Id, Northern Tasmania, 10m, Sept. 1985, 20mm long, AM C148084. LOWER: Horseshoe Reef, Devonport, Tasmania; 1 specimen (17 mm long alive), 20 m, 23 June 1985, AM C146982. PHOTOS: Bill Rudman
RELATED TOPIC
Specimens from Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia differ from New South Wales animals in having regularly spaced white specks all over the dorsum except for a clear band near the edge, the specks apparently being formed from aggregations of subepithelial granules. In some specimens there is also an aggregation of these granules right at the edge of the mantle to form a broken white line along the edge. The colour of the orange spots is also much less brilliantly opaque than New South Wales animals, the spots often being almost invisble in smaller specimens.
This 'Bass Strait colour form' is very similar in colour to Noumea closei and the yellow Tasmanian colour form of Noumea haliclona
Reference:
•Rudman, W.B. (1986) The Chromodorididae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Indo-West Pacific: Noumea flava colour group. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 88: 377-404.
Rudman, W.B., 2001 (March 28) Noumea sulphurea Bass Strait colour form. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/noumsulp2
