Hypselodoris ghiselini - new record from Peru

Dear David,

Well this is a truly interesting find.  The only slender, blue species of chromodorids found in the region of Peru, are Hypselodoris lapislazuli (Bertsch &Ferreira, 1974) and Hypselodoris agassizii (Bergh, 1849), however your photos here do not resemble either of these species.  Excellent photographs of H. lapislazuli can be found in Hickman & Finet (1999) and Camacho-Garcia et al. (2005).  Your species is quite different, in fact it is a dead ringer for a more northern species, Hypselodoris ghiselini Bertsch, 1978.

If my identification is accurate your find accounts for a very large extension of this species documented geographic range.  Behrens & Hermosillo (2005) report H. ghiselini from the Gulf of California, Mexico.  Camacho-Garcia et al. (2005) covering Costa Rica, Panama and the Galapagos, do not list it at all.  This is a great find.

• Behrens, D.W. & A. Hermosillo.  2005.  Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs - A guide to the opisthobranchs from Alaska to Central America.  Sea Challengers.   137 pp.
• Camacho-Garcia, Y., T.M. Gosliner & A. Valdes.  2005.  Field Guide to the Sea Slugs of the Tropical Eastern Pacific.  California Academy of Sciences.  129.
• Hickman, C.P. & Y. Finet.  1999.  A Field Guide to the Marine Molluscs of Galapagos.  Sugar Springs Press.   150 pp.

We hope to have a Fact Sheet for H. lapislazuli soon, describing the pale blue marginal band, and other characters separating it from H. ghiselini.

Best wishes,
Dave Behrens