Polycera aurantiomarginata
García Gómez & Bobo, 1984

Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: DORIDINA
Family: Polyceridae
Subfamily: Polycerinae

DISTRIBUTION

West Africa [Angola, Senegal] to Spain. Mediterranean records from southern Spain & Tunisia.

PHOTO

Bay of Algeciras (Strait of Gibraltar, Southern Spain) at 23 depth. Size: 20 mm. September, 2000. Photo: Alma Sanchez.

The animal is dark grey or black, somewhat more translucent around the anterior end. There are characteristic yellow marks as shown on the photo. The translucent black gills, not clearly seen in this photo, have a yellow line up both the inner and outer edge of the rachis.

There is a dark blue form of Polycera quadrilineata which closely resembles the blue adult form of Polycera aurantiomarginata. P. aurantiomarginata always has an orange border to the foot as its name suggests. The two species can also be distinguished in the colour of the rhinophore club - in P. aurantiomarginata at least the upper half, but not the tip is bluish-black, and in P. quadrilineata, yellow or orange. Similarly the apical part of the gills are black in P. aurantiomarginata and yellow in P. quadrilineata. Another difference is in the number of cephalic processes on the anterior mantle edge - - in P. aurantiomarginata there are 6-7 and in P. quadrilineata usually 4.
Polycera xicoi Ortea & Rolan, 1989 from Cape Verde Ids is a synonym.

Polycera chilluna from the western Atlantic is almost certainly a senior synonym.

Reference:
• Garcia-Gomez, J.C. & Bobo, A (1984) Una nueva especie de Polycera Cuvier (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) del litoral iberico. Cah. Biol. Mar., 25: 361-373.
• Ortea, J. & Rolan, E. (1989) Descripcion de una nueva especie del genero Polycera Cuvier, 1816 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia) del Archipielago de Cabo Verde. Publicaçoes Ocasionais da Sociedade Portuguesa de Malacologia, 14: 23-28.
• Valles, Y., Valdes, A. & Ortea, J. (2000) On the phanerobranch dorids of Angola (Mollusca, Nudibranchia): a crossroads of temperate and tropical species. Zoosystema, 22(1): 15-31.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2001 (February 19) Polycera aurantiomarginata García Gómez & Bobo, 1984. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/polyaura

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