Elysia ornata? from Tel Aviv, Israel

Dear Mike,

This is a species of Elysia. I suspect there is more than one species mixed up in the group we call Elysia ornata and at present I am calling this one with large, very thin, parapodial folds Elysia grandifolia. However if you look at the message from Kathe Jensen [message #5727], who is an expert on the elysiids, you will see a solution is not that simple.

Interestingly, all the animals I have tentatively identified as E. grandifolia have been reported from the eastern end of the Mediterranean. However there is general agreement that your species, whatever its name, originated in the Indian Ocean and made its way, in recent times, into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal - a procees we call Lessepsian migration.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman