Dermatobranchus semilunus Gosliner & Fahey, 2011
- Location
- Horse Shoes, Okinawa Island (Onna and Yomitan area), Okinawa, Japan
- Date
- 2016/07/05
- Length
- 11mm
- Depth
- 8.0m
- Water temperature
- 28.0℃
Description
Body elongate, flattened, narrowing posteriorly. The foot does not project beyond the distinct mantle margin. The dorsum bears 10–14 low longitudinal ridges. The oral veil extends forward with blunt extensions at the corners. Widely spaced rhinophores sit behind the oral veil with longitudinal lamellae on the rounded club; the stalk does not narrow noticeably.Ground colour of the dorsum, oral veil and foot is opaque white. The depressions between the dorsal ridges are light grey with dark dots. A single dark, U-shaped (semi-lunar) brown band of pigment crosses the anterior third of the notum. Evenly spaced, dark, ocellated spots line the mantle edge, and the posterior edge of the mantle is yellowish or tan. Rhinophore stalks are white and the clubs are dark. The oral veil is opaque white with irregular dark spots.
Distribution
Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, eastern Malaysia and the Philippines. Type locality: Madang, Papua New Guinea.Etymology
Verbatim from the original description (Gosliner & Fahey, 2011, p.336):The specific name semilunus is from the combined Latin words meaning half-moon, in reference to the dark, semi-lunar shaped marking on the anterior third of the dorsum of this species.
Remarks
Externally similar to D. fasciatus and D. tuberculatus but distinguished by the U-shaped half-moon mark and by radular morphology.References
- Dermatobranchus sp. 7, Gosliner T.M., Behrens D.W. & Valdés Á. (2008). Indo-Pacific Nudibranchs and Sea Slugs: A field guide to the world's most diverse fauna. Sea Challengers Natural History Books, 426 pp.
- Dermatobranchus semilunus sp. nov., GOSLINER T.M. & FAHEY S.J. (2011). Previously undocumented diversity and abundance of cryptic species: a phylogenetic analysis of Indo-Pacific Arminidae Rafinesque, 1814 (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) with descriptions of 20 new species of Dermatobranchus. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 161(2): 245-356. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00649.x
- Dermatobranchus semilunus, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
- ハンゲツオトメウミウシ（新称）, 中野理枝. (2018). 日本のウミウシ. 文一総合出版.
Featured in this book
Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2018). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific 2nd Edition. New World Pubns Inc.
New World Publications
This species, Dermatobranchus semilunus, is included in the book.
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Photos of Dermatobranchus semilunus
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Academic Database
Sea slug observation data is available in international marine biodiversity databases.