Platydoris ellioti
(Alder & Hancock, 1864)

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

DISTRIBUTION

Tropical Indo-West Pacific

PHOTO

Plate 28, figs 1, 2 - from Alder & Hancock, (1864).

The animal is large and flat with a wide mantle and narrow body. The rhinophore sheaths are raised and the gill sheath is raised and developed into 6 lobes. The dorsum is translucent brown with small brownish blotches scattered all over. Around the mantle edge there is a band of greenish grey blotches. The underside of the mantle and the foot is yellow or yellow-orange. The underside of the mantle has a ring of relatively large rounded brown spots, and around the mantle margin the brwnish colour from the dorsal surface shows through. There can be translucent brown speckling on the sole of the foot. Grows to at least 11 cm in length.

Note: this species is named after Walter Elliot a colonial naturalist in India, not the more famous Charles Eliot, so the species name is spelt ell ioti.

• Alder, J. and Hancock, A. (1864) Notice of a collection of nudibranchiate mollusca made in India by Walter Elliot Esq., with descriptions of several new genera and species. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 5: 113-147.
• K.M. Dorgan, A. Valdes and T.M. Gosliner. (2002) Phylogenetic systematics of the genus Platydoris (Mollusca, Nudibranchia, Doridoidea) with descriptions of six new species. Zoologica Scripta, 31: 271-319.

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