Gastropteron chacmol
Gosliner, 1989

Order: CEPHALASPIDEA
Superfamily: PHILINOIDEA
Family: Gastropteridae

PHOTO

In 3-5 feet of water crawling on the sand during the day off Stocking Island, Exumas, Bahamas (Southern Bahamas) 5mm long alive. January 5, 2004. Photo: Anne DuPont

Animals reach 7mm in length and are active swimmers. The body colour is deep red to 'plum'. In some specimens yellow spots are scattered over the surface of the body. There is a bright yellow band at the parapodial edge. The anterior edge of the head shield is bilobed with a distinct median cleft. The siphon is simple as is typical for the genus. There is a pointed flagellum on the posterior part of the visceral hump. The gill is large, consisting of 7-10 plicate leaflets.

This species has been previously identified with the Mediterranean species Gastropteron rubrum by Abbott (1954, 1966) who reports it as 'moderately common' from Texas, Florida, West Indies to Brazil, and Marcus & Marcus (1960) who report it from Florida and Sao Paulo, Brazil and also note an earlier record from Guadeloupe. Gosliner adds new records from Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico and Caracas Is., Venezuela.

References:
• Abbott, R.T. (1954) American Seashells van Nostrand: New York. 541pp [and later editions]
• Gosliner, T.M. (1989): Revision of the Gastropteridae (Opisthobranchia: Cephalaspidea) with descriptions of a new genus and six new species. The Veliger, 32(4): 333-381.
• Marcus, Ev. & Marcus, Er. (1960)Opisthobranchs from American Atlantic warm waters. Bulletin of Marine Science of the Gulf and Caribbean, 10(2): 129-203.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2004 (January 17) Gastropteron chacmol Gosliner, 1989. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/gastchac

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