Dendrodoris nigra from South Africa
July 8, 2000
From: Valda Fraser
Dear Bill
Please tell me if you agree with me in suggesting that this is Dendrodoris nigra. I have sent 2 photos to illustrate colour variation.
Locality: Mpande, Transkei, SOUTH AFRICA - intertidal zone
Date: June 2000
Size: 48mm
Thanks.
Regards
Valda
iti04937@mweb.co.za
Fraser, V., 2000 (Jul 8) Dendrodoris nigra from South Africa. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2666Dear Valda,
yes these both seem to be D. nigra. One good way to separate it from the similarly coloured Dendrodoris fumata is that D. fumata has a few (usually 5) large gills which sit out in a big circlet covering the posterior end of the mantle while D. nigra has a tight upright circle of many (10 or more) gills.
Your upper photo shows a colour form which seems more common in the western Indian ocean than in the Pacific in which some of the white epithelial glands are arranged in clusters, with one gland in the middle surrounded by a ring of glands (see inset). This was a common form in Tanzania, when I was there in the 1970s.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.
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