Tambja eliora
(Marcus & Marcus, 1967)

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: ANADORIDOIDEA
Family: Polyceridae
Subfamily: Nembrothinae

DISTRIBUTION

Gulf of California. Also records on the Forum from Costa Rica and Ecuador.

PHOTO

Upper: Majahuitas, Bahia de Banderas, Pacific Coast of Mexico, June 18th, 45 feet deep, 43 mm long. Photo: Alicia Hermosillo.
Lower: Las Islas Murcielago, Costa Rica. 35ft, 25 April, 2002. Photo: Peter Ajtai.

The background colour varies from yellow-ochre to a darkish brown-grey. There are usually a series of longitudinal turquoise blue bands margined with a thin black line, but in specimens from Costa Rica the turquoise bands are broken into a series of elongate spots which are joined, like a string of beads, by a continuation of the black line which borders the spots. The gills are black with a blue line along the inside edge of the rachis. The outside edge of rachis is khaki or yellow ochre at base, and blue at tips.

The adults grow to 50mm in length but some larger specimens have been reported. Tambja eliora is also preyed on by Roboastra tigris. It is sometimes able to escape by swimming, which it does by flexing its body from side to side.

• Farmer, W.M. (1978) Tambja and Roboastra (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) from the Gulf of California and the Galapagos Islands. The Veliger, 20(4): 375-385.
• Marcus, Er. & Marcus, Ev. (1967) American opisthobranch mollusks. Part 2, Opisthobranchs from the Gulf of California. Studies Tropical Oceanography, Miami 6(1-2): 141-256. (Figs 1-95).

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