Re: Chromodoris cavae from South Africa

May 7, 2007
From: Colin Ogden

Concerning message #13967:

Hi Bill,
Thanks for the response on the C. tennantana. I have some more photos from some of my staff members of a nudi which could be C. cavae. Both of these were taken in the rock pools at Jesser point. I would appreciate your opinion on these. I have noted your comments [message #19862] also about Chromodoris cf. geminus which we also find here.

Locality: Sodwana Bay, .3 metres, South Africa, Indian, March 2006, rock pools. Length: 20 mm. Photographer: Nix Orban (lower photo) & Jesse Felthuis (upper photo).

regards
Colin

scubaco@iafrica.com

Ogden C. M., 2007 (May 7) Re: Chromodoris cavae from South Africa. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19883

Dear Colin,
These are a valuable addition as they show two more variations of what I think are Chromodoris cavae.

The upper photo is quite similar to an earlier one from South Africa [message ##1486] in having very few purple spots, but differs in lacking the brownish background colour of that specimen. Looking at this photo it makes me wonder whether this colour form of C. cavae is the answer to the Risbecia ghardaqana puzzle [see message #9625]. If there is a form of C. cavae which looks like this but has also lost the few remaining purple spots it would be a close to perfect match for R. ghardaqana, as species which has never been confidently re-indentified since its original description.

The animal in the lower photo is quite similar to the photo we have from Kerala in India [message #8894] but the diffuse yellow spots have become larger and orange-brown, illustrating a step before the fusion of these brownish spots into the solid brownish patch seen in photos G-K in message #19876 ]

I never thought a few days ago that one message from Reunion Is would lead to this interesting 'shake-out' of these Indian Ocean purple-spotted chromodorids. All we need now is some information on their eggs and feeding habits.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (May 7). Comment on Re: Chromodoris cavae from South Africa by Colin Ogden. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19883

Factsheet

Chromodoris cavae

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