Philinopsis aeci
Ortea & Espinosa, 2001

Order: CEPHALASPIDEA
Superfamily: PHILINOIDEA
Family: Aglajidae

DISTRIBUTION

Caribbean

PHOTO

Upper: Live on Cladophora in 1m, Thurstone Bay, Abaco, Bahamas. August 18, 2002. 9mm. long alive. Photo: Colin Redfern.
Lower: In about 5 feet of water crawling on the sand during the day. Off Stocking Island, Exumas, Bahamas (Southern Bahamas) The size was approximately ½ inch long. 26 December 2003. Photo: Anne DuPont

I am pretty sure this is the animal that Colin Redfern (2001: Pl.114, figs 649) calls Philinopsis sp. A. I suspect it is closely related to the Indo-West Pacific species Aglaja? orientalis as it has a similar body shape and patterns of transverse white bands across the body.

Philinopsis aeci was recently described from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. In that description, the general body shape is the same as the above photos from the Bahamas, and an accompanying photograph [Ortea & Espinosa: Pl. 3, fig. A] shows traces of the white transverse bands but the background colour is a dark greenish brown. A colour painting [Ortea & Espinosa: Pl. 2, fig. C] has a much lighter background colour and yellowish tubercles, each surrounded by a bright orange red ring are very conspicuous. Similar tubercles with a white basal ring are sometimes seen in Aglaja? orientalis so I suspect their presence in the Costa Rican specimens and their absence in Bahamian animals does not necessarily mean that there are two different species. Clearly what we need is more photos to see just how much colour variation there is.

References:
• Ortea, J., Espinosa, J. (2001) A new species of Philinopsis Pease, 1860 (in Spanish). Avicennia, Moluscos del Mar caribe de Costa Rica, Suplemento 4: 41-42.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2004 (January 4) Philinopsis aeci Ortea & Espinosa, 2001. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/philaeci

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