Cerberilla africana from Mozambique

January 9, 2009
From: Valda Fraser


Dear Bill
I found this nudibranch in an estuary. Please help to identify it.

Locality: Pomene, 3m, Mozambique, Indian, 17 December 2008, Estuary. Length: 30mm. Photographer: Valda Fraser.

Best wishes
Valda

valdafraser@mweb.co.za

Fraser, V.J., 2009 (Jan 9) Cerberilla africana from Mozambique. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22141

Dear Valda,

This is what I am identifying as Cerberilla africana which Eliot described from Zanzibar, but as I mention in an earlier message [#20692] it could well be the some as Bergh's Fenrisia moebii from Mauritius.

Species of Cerberilla spend much of their time through sandy and muddy substrates, and those we have information on, feed on burrowing sea anemones, or at least anemones which can anchor themselves in soft sediments. I have included a couple of close-ups of your photo to show how the colour pattern on the cerata can change within a lateral row, and also from one end of the animal to the other. I am pretty sure Fenrisia moebii is the same species, but as I show in the earlier message, Bergh only illustrated on ceras.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2009 (Jan 9). Comment on Cerberilla africana from Mozambique by Valda Fraser. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22141

Factsheet

Cerberilla africana

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