Opisthobranchs from SE Sulawesi, Indonesia

November 19, 1998
From: Lindsay Warren

Dear Bill

Have just returned from three months once again working with Operation Wallacea on Pulau Hoga in the Tukang Besi Islands off SE Sulawesi, Indonesia.  While there, we made contact with Dave Behrens who told us about your major 'dissection'. Unfortunately our computer crashed in no uncertain terms and we were unable to send you our best wishes for a speedy recovery at the time.  So now I am happy to be able to do so and hear that you are making excellent progress - wonderful news!

To help you while away your recovery time, I thought you might like to receive photos of additional specimens found, photographed and preserved this year.  There are quite a number but I don't propose to send them all to you and then again, not all at once! Dave Behrens has also kindly offered to assist in identifying specimens and I have just send him some to check out.  At present we are unable to take specimens outside the park boundaries but this should be rectified soon.  In the meantime, I thought it might be possible to clear up some of the 'mysteries' via photos.  We have some 60 unidentified specimens, many of which are Chromodorids and I will send these to you for your comments given your expertise in this and other groups if that is OK by you. 

At the moment, I do not have the full details of surfaces on which they were found although this is on record on the island.  I will be asking for copies of these to be sent to me so that I can give a more complete picture.

Please find attached:
pic1 - the left one probably a Chromodoris elisabethina and the right one possibly a Ch. annae.
pic2- another Chromodorid with the 'grainy' blue of an C. annae but with additional black markings along the dorsum.
pic3 - another variant with a base of white, strong black markings and blotches of blue along the notum; orange mantle with thin white edge.
pic4 - overall pale blue / grey base, brilliant white edge to mantle, black lines and patches with orange rhinophores and gills.

We have found many specimens with varying colour patterns which seem related to either Ch. annae or C. elisabethena and I will forward these to you as soon as they have been scanned in.

We have built up a good base of opisthobranchs just around the small island of Pulau Hoga and from a couple of locations on nearby Pulau Kaledupa - over 160 to date.  Other work this year has been the detailed descriptions of sponges, tunicates and the start of cataloguing fish species groups and mollusca.  The science side of Operation Wallacea is co-ordinated by Dr Monica Sullivan who spends most of her time on Pulau Hoga and is assisted at different times by other staff and volunteers. Now that I am back in the UK, my task is to try to identify opisthobranch specimens we have not been able to identify via the books we have on the island.  I have checked through all the postings on your excellent Slug Forum since the end of July (when I left for Hoga) and am currently going through those posted on Mike Miller's Slug Site and Bob Bolland's Okinawa Slug Site. 

Many thanks for your help and all good wishes for an even faster recovery.
Lindsay Warren

75 Netherwood Road,
London W14 0BP
Tel: 44+171 602 1925 / 602 6333,
Fax: 44+171 602 8539

100014.2112@compuserve.com

Warren, L., 1998 (Nov 19) Opisthobranchs from SE Sulawesi, Indonesia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/315

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