Janolus ignis from Kaikoura, New Zealand

October 26, 2006
From: Kimberley Seaward

Concerning message #4159:

Hello,

I found this species of nudibranch in Kaikoura, New Zealand when conducting routine surveys of the intertidal for the University of Canterbury.

I had a assumed that it was relatively common and would at least be mentioned somewhere in Powell's New Zealand Mollusca or Morton and Miller's The New Zealand Sea Shore. However, the only mention of something similar that I stumbled across was of the water colour drawing of Aeolidia. Can you please help me identify this??

Locality: Beach, 0m out of water at low tide, New Zealand, Pacific Ocean, 8 October 2006, Intertidal on brown seaweed. Length: 10mm. Photographer: Kimberley Seaward.

Kimberley Seaward

kimberley.seaward@canterbury.ac.nz

Seaward, K.J., 2006 (Oct 26) Janolus ignis from Kaikoura, New Zealand . [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/18129

Dear Kimberley,
Your animal does look quite like an aeolid nudibranch, but it is not one. One external clue to its identity is the warty protuberance growing between the rhinophores. The function of this object is not clear, but it is found only in some genera of the arminoidean family Zephyrinidae. I am pretty sure your animal is Janolus ignis. Animals I have seen before of this species are a darker colour than this, but there are so few records of it that we really don't know the extent of its colour variability. Have a look at the species Fact Sheet for further information. The bluish white lines down the rhinophores and on the body are characteristic of this species, which is known from about half a dozen records throughout New Zealand. It wasn't named until some years after the two books you mentioned were published.

If you have other photos of New Zealand nudibranchs, even ones you have identified, they would be very welcome on the Forum.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Oct 26). Comment on Janolus ignis from Kaikoura, New Zealand by Kimberley Seaward. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/18129

Factsheet

Janolus ignis

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