Haminoea ovalis? from American Samoa

March 6, 2000
From: Don Barclay

Hi Bill,

I went "red bubble" hunting last night, but didn't find any. I did find a pair of bubbles, though, of a different sort. They look closest to the photos of Haminoea ovalis to me, though I'm not entirely sure what external characteristics distinguish Clay and Patty Jo's Haminoea sp. 3. These did have greyish spots on and behind the head, but not really purple ones, and these dark spots appeared to be under the surface rather than external coloring. The larger animal was 12mm long, and the smaller one 9mm. The only noticeable difference was that the small orange spots appeared a bit more widely distributed on the larger animal, and the smaller one had fewer dark spots.

They were both collected in the same area where the Bullina sp. 1 was collected, on a coral head covered with Halimeda patches, reddish-orange coralline growths, and mossy green algae that may be the blue-green algae, Lyngbya majuscula, that Clay refers to. They were collected just after midnight, early morning of 2 March 2000, in one meter of water, Utulei village, west Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa. The attached photos are of the 12mm specimen. Haminoea ovalis?

Thanks as always,

Don.

n5ols@samoatelco.com

Barclay, D., 2000 (Mar 6) Haminoea ovalis? from American Samoa. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2030

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