Hypselodoris ghiselini
Bertsch, 1978

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

DISTRIBUTION

Throughout the Gulf of California

PHOTO

These individuals, about 25-30mm in length, were photographed at a depth of about 5 meters at Punta Chivato, on the Baja side of the Gulf of California. Photos: Scott Johnson

Deep blue background colour with numerous bright yellow spots on the mantle and foot. There are also a few similar sized whitish blue spots scattered on the notum. The rhinophore clubs and the gills are dark blue with yellow dots on the inner sides of gills. Similar in appearance to H. californiensis which differs in having larger yellow spots, and in not having white spots, nor a pale blue border to the mantle and foot, and no yellow spots on the gills.

Reference:
• Bertsch, H. (1978). The Chromodoridinae Nudibranchs from the Pacific Coast of America – Part IV. The genus Hypselodoris. The Veliger, 21(2): 245-247.
• Gosliner, T.M. & Johnson, R.F. (1999) Phylogeny of Hypselodoris (Nudibranchia: Chromodorididae) with a review of the monophyletic clade of Indo-Pacific species, including descriptions of twelve new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 125: 1-114.

Authorship details
Rudman, W.B., 2000 (October 13) Hypselodoris ghiselini Bertsch, 1978. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/hypsghis

Related messages


Hypselodoris ghiselini - new record from Peru

February 20, 2006
From: David Thompson

Hi Bill
How are you? Would you be so kind as to identify the attached species for me please.I would be very grateful.

The specimens were found on a "muddy" bottom with patches of Caulerpa flagelliformis at 5.5 m on the 04 November 2005, water temp. 17.4ºC, size of animals ~6 cm. The locality was Paita in Piura, northern Peru, 05º04,802'  Lat and 81º06,208' Long.  

These specimens were found by Marina Quiñe, a colleague from Peru.

Regards,
David

david@diverdavid.co.uk

Thompson, D., 2006 (Feb 20) Hypselodoris ghiselini - new record from Peru. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15852

Dear David,

Well this is a truly interesting find.  The only slender, blue species of chromodorids found in the region of Peru, are Hypselodoris lapislazuli (Bertsch &Ferreira, 1974) and Hypselodoris agassizii (Bergh, 1849), however your photos here do not resemble either of these species.  Excellent photographs of H. lapislazuli can be found in Hickman & Finet (1999) and Camacho-Garcia et al. (2005).  Your species is quite different, in fact it is a dead ringer for a more northern species, Hypselodoris ghiselini Bertsch, 1978.

If my identification is accurate your find accounts for a very large extension of this species documented geographic range.  Behrens & Hermosillo (2005) report H. ghiselini from the Gulf of California, Mexico.  Camacho-Garcia et al. (2005) covering Costa Rica, Panama and the Galapagos, do not list it at all.  This is a great find.

  • Behrens, D.W. & A. Hermosillo.  2005.  Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs - A guide to the opisthobranchs from Alaska to Central America.  Sea Challengers.   137 pp.
  • Camacho-Garcia, Y., T.M. Gosliner & A. Valdes.  2005.  Field Guide to the Sea Slugs of the Tropical Eastern Pacific.  California Academy of Sciences.  129.
  • Hickman, C.P. & Y. Finet.  1999.  A Field Guide to the Marine Molluscs of Galapagos.  Sugar Springs Press.   150 pp.

We hope to have a Fact Sheet for H. lapislazuli soon, describing the pale blue marginal band, and other characters separating it from H. ghiselini.

Best wishes,
Dave Behrens

Behrens, D.W., 2006 (Feb 20). Comment on Hypselodoris ghiselini - new record from Peru by David Thompson. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15852

Hypselodoris ghiselini from the Sea of Cortez

October 15, 2000
From: Scott Johnson


Hi Bill,

The Sea of Cortez species Hypselodoris ghiselini is one of those with background coloration so dark it seems to suck up the light from a strobe. Specimens seem to range from very dark blue to black, scattered with yellow spots. These individuals, about 25-30mm in length, were photographed at a depth of about 5 meters at Punta Chivato, on the Baja side of the Gulf of California.

Scott

johnson@kmr.ll.mit.edu

Johnson, S., 2000 (Oct 15) Hypselodoris ghiselini from the Sea of Cortez. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3171

Thanks Scott,
Bill Rudman.