Dear Denis,
It certainly does look the same. I think I have said before that these small cuthonids pose a particular problem with identficiation, because many of them seem to take advantage of shipping to travel the world. I suspect there are a few examples of the same species being described as a different species in different parts of the world. One problem is that often spcies are named on the basis if a very specimens so we dont have a good idea of variation within a single population. Cuthona sp. 8 is a god example. is it a widespread Indo-West Pacific species, was it originally a NW Pacific species, was it an Australian species? or perhaps its an Atlantic species originally?

I guess at this stage we will need to have a look at all the published descriptions and see if we can find something that fits.
Very interesting,
Bill Rudman

Dear Sayo,
This is truly a beautiful Cuthona and I agree it looks like the photo in message #15636.  I think we should call this Cuthona sp. 8, until we can find a name for it.  I cannot find anything vaguely like it.  The color is certainly striking.

Interestingly, your animal looks remarkably similar to an  Cuthona sp. 9 collected in Bahia Banderas, Mexico, by Alicia Hermosillo [Species #307; Behrens & Hermosillo, 2005].  The cerata are very close but the head color is white in the Mexican specimen.

Please write to us often, and incidentally, your English is better that many of my friends.  No apology necessity.

• Behrens, D.W. & A. Hermosillo.  2005.  Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs - A guide to the opisthobranchs from Alaska to Central America.  Sea Challengers.   137 pp.

Best wishes,
Dave Behrens

Dear Gon,
Like the animals from Jervis Bay you refer to, this is most probably a species of Cuthona. Quite a lot of them have a reddish orange band on the rhinophores. Identifying them is quite difficult unless they are one of the species which has a very distinctive colour pattern based on skin pigment. Many have a colour pattern which to a large extent is based on the colour of the digestive gland - and thus their food. Many have also been described on the basis of very few specimens so we have no idea of their colour varaibility. This is especially true of Indo-West Pacific species. At this stage it is difficult to know just how wide spread some of the described species are.

If anyone is willing to give us their opinion it will be very welcome. It is possible there is a description out there which fits this colour pattern precisely, but it is a bit like a lottery. So I am afraid at present I am going to have to leave this in an unidentified list.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman