Re: Mexichromis kempfi from Little Cayman, British West Indies

November 27, 2008
From: Vinicius Padula

Concerning message #22075:

Dear Deborah and Bill,

Here is another photograph of the common pattern of Mexichromis kempfi and its large eggs from the southeastern Brazilian coast.

Locality: Cabo Frio, 10 metres, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Atlantic, 9 December 2007. Length: 15 mm. Photographer: Vinicius Padula.

I don't know any record of specimens with a whitish background colour in the same area. And also of the blue form from the Caribbean.

We know very little about M. kempfi from northern Brazil, only the original description, and from other Brazilian localities. The original specimens fits better with the blue form. At the same time, as Bill suspects and I support, Mexichromis molloi Ortea & Valdés in Ortea, Valdés & García-Gómez, 1996 from Venezuela could be a color variation of this species, and may represent the presence of the blue form in the Caribbean Sea.

I hope that soon someone will take pictures of the eggs of the whitish form from the Caribbean and we can go ahead in this discussion.

Best wishes,
Vinicius

viniciuspadula@yahoo.com

Padula, V., 2008 (Nov 27) Re: Mexichromis kempfi from Little Cayman, British West Indies. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22082

Thanks Vinicius,

Certainly a look at the egg ribbon of the whitish form could give us a valuable clue. However, as I have said before we know nothing of the anatomy of the whitish animal and very little of the blue Brazilian animal. As I discuss in a earlier message [#6448], my tentative placing of it in Mexichromis was based solely on Marcus's original, very brief description of the radula.

I hope someone will be able to find and send you some specimens of the whitish Caribbean form so you will be able to compare the anatomy and decide if we have two species, or one species with various colour forms.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (Nov 27). Comment on Re: Mexichromis kempfi from Little Cayman, British West Indies by Vinicius Padula. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22082

Factsheet

Mexichromis kempfi

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