Mexichromis francoisae
(Bouchet in Bouchet & Ortea,1980)

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Superfamily: EUDORIDOIDEA
Family: Chromodorididae

DISTRIBUTION

West Africa [Senegal, Cape Verde Arhipelago]

PHOTO

Dakar, Senegal. Tacoma wreck, April 1999, Depth of 10m. Photo: Patrice Petit de Voize

This is another of the Mediterranean - East Atlantic colour group of blue chromodorids. It was first described from Senegal (Bouchet & Ortea, 1980) as being deep blue with a yellow border to the mantle, and with a white line running around the mantle, some distance in from the edge and encircling the gills and rhinophores. A median white line runs from in front of the rhinophores to the gills. The body has a white line along each side which meets posteriorly in the dorsal midline of the posterior foot. The gills and rhinophores are a deep blue. From illustrations I have seen it would seem that the blue zone on the mantle between the yellow edge and the outer white line is much darker than the central blue zone. This species is reported to grow to at least 26mm in length.

It has subsequently been reported from the Cape Verde Archipelago (Ortea, 1988), and later transferred from Chromodoris to Mexichromis on the basis of radular morphology and anatomy of the reproductive system (Ortea et. al., 1996)

References:
• Bouchet, P. & Ortea, J (1980) Quelques Chromodorididae bleus (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchiata) de l'Atlantique oriental. Ann. Institute Oceanographique, Paris, 56(2): 117-125.
• Ortea, J.A. (1988) Moluscos Opistobranquios del Archipielago de Cabo Verde: Chromodorididae. Publicationes Ocacionais da Sociedade Portugesa de Malacologia, 11: 1-16, Figs 1-10, Pl.1.
• Ortea, J., Valdés, A. & and García-Gómez, J.C. (1996) Revisión de las especies atlánticas de la familia Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) de grupo cromático azul. [Review of the Atlantic species of the family Chromodorididae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) of the blue chromatic group.] Avicennia, 1996, Suppl. 1: 1-165.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2003 (April 16) Mexichromis francoisae (Bouchet in Bouchet & Ortea,1980). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/mexifran

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