A new? Oxynoe from the Marshall Islands
August 25, 2007
From: Scott Johnson
Hi Bill,
I'm uncertain about this one. When I first saw this small 7 mm long animal, I thought it looked like a Colpodaspis. Then under magnification, I thought the head didn't look quite right, and that it could have been something like a tiny Oxynoe. I don't know either of those groups very well. I know it's hard to tell much since the resolution of these pics suffered from being blown up, but I was hoping you might recognize it. This specimen, found at Enewetak in 1983, was the only one I'd seen until a few weeks ago, when Jeanette saw four even smaller specimens that appeared to be depositing eggs on a large flake of living Halimeda. After processing, we should have some photos of these.
Locality: Enewetak Atoll, 12 m, Marshall Islands, Pacific, 5 April 1983, On Halimeda algae. Length: 7 mm. Photographer: Scott Johnson.
Scott Johnson
uwkwaj@yahoo.com
Johnson, S., 2007 (Aug 25) A new? Oxynoe from the Marshall Islands. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20521
Dear Scott,
From the general shape I am sure this is a species of Oxynoe. In Colpodaspis, the shell, if present, is completely enclosed by the mantle while in your animal the warty parapodia only partly encloses the shell. The coloured bit in the middle between the parapodia, with bright blue spots, is the mantle which lines the inside of the transparent shell. I can't say I recall a species of Oxynoe with warty tubercles and reticulate lines like this, so it's possible this is an unnamed species. Hopefully Kathe Jensen has a comment
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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