Thuridilla picta from Canary Ids

July 29, 2003
From: Bianca Rijnders


Hello,
First of all compliments for your fantastic Forum, I will certainly return to it on a regular basis! I was given your "link" by a biologist of the University of La Laguna in Tenerife, Canary Islands, who helped me identify this animal, which fascinated me, so small, yet so spectacular.

I found a specimen of Thuridilla which is thought to be a Thuridilla picta during a dive in the south of the island (I'm a scuba instructor here). I attach two pictures, one that was taken by me in the south of the island, and one which was send by the marine biologist, which was taken in the north. However, in your page I see that this species is considered to live only in the Carribean. Does this mean this is a different species?

Bianca Rijnders

info@mirazul.com

Rijnders, B., 2003 (Jul 29) Thuridilla picta from Canary Ids. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10545

Dear Bianca,
Your animal has certainly been identified with Thuridilla picta, from the Caribbean, and also has similarities to the Mediterranean Thuridilla hopei. Thanks for drawing my attention to the absence of the eastern Atlantic islands from the distribution data. I look forward to photos of any other interesting finds you make. Photos of any species from the Canary Ids would be valuable as our knowledge of the relationship between the east and west Atlantic faunas is still poor.

• Wirtz, P. (1999) Opisthobranch molluscs from the Madeira Archipelago. Vita Marina, 46((1-2)): 1-18.
• Ortea, J.A., Luque, A.A.. Templado, J. (1988) Elysia picta Verrill, 1901, and Geitodoris pusae (Marcus, 1955), two amphiatlantic opisthobranch gastropods. J. Moll. Stud., 54: 243-247.

Best wishes,
Bill

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Jul 29). Comment on Thuridilla picta from Canary Ids by Bianca Rijnders. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10545

Factsheet

Thuridilla picta

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