Roboastra sp. from Gulf of Mexico
December 10, 2003
From: Ray Simpson
On Mike Miller's slug site there is a picture ... http://slugsite.us/bow/nudwk121.htm
It shows a yellow sea slug with blue spots that they call a Roboastra, from the Gulf of Mexico. Can you put a name on this species?
As for the genus, Malacolog database shows no Roboastra slugs in the W. Atlantic ... now there is a species from Brazil [Roboastra sp. 1], one here from the Gulf, and one from Venezuela in Humann's book. I guess the Caribbean is very poorly studied for such beautiful slugs to go unnoticed ...
Thanks
Ray Simpson
P51MustNB@aol.com
Simpson, R., 2003 (Dec 10) Roboastra sp. from Gulf of Mexico. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11625Dear Ray,
The spectacular nudibranch on Mike Miller's site certainly looks like a species of Roboastra from the long rolled oral tentacles. I have not seen another photo or published description of it. The animal in Humann's book [2nd ed 2002: p. 309] is probably a species of Tambja or perhaps Nembrotha, rather than Roboastra but that is just a guess on my part. As you say, we still have a lot to learn about the western Atlantic and the Caribbean. I guess I'm biased, but when you think that nearby Cape Canaveral is the site of man's probably most expensive search for knowledge, trillions of dollars being spent to get rocks from the Moon and the planets. Wouldn't it be nice if a tiny fraction of that could be diverted to study the unknown life in the sea alongside.
Best wishes
Bill Rudman
Related messages
-
Re: Tambja? gratiosa from NW Florida
From: Dev Clifford, August 10, 2005 -
Tambja? gratiosa from NW Florida
From: Carol Cox, July 22, 2005 -
Re: Tambja gratiosa? from North Carolina
From: Ray Simpson, July 21, 2005 -
The identity of Nembrotha gratiosa
From: Bill Rudman, July 21, 2005 -
Tambja gratiosa? from North Carolina
From: Herb Segars, July 19, 2005
