Doridomorpha gardineri Eliot, 1903

Description

Body hemispherical, with the mantle a greyish blue that closely matches the colour of the host blue coral Heliopora caerulea - a striking case of host-mimicry. The animal lives and feeds on living blue coral. Doridomorpha is a monotypic genus that, despite its dorid-like appearance, is anatomically allied to the Pulmonata rather than to true nudibranchs.

Distribution

Locally on colonies of Heliopora caerulea in the Indo-West Pacific. The type locality is the Maldive Islands.

Etymology

Named in honour of J. Stanley Gardiner, leader of the 1899-1900 Cambridge expedition to the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes and the supplier of Eliot's nudibranch material.

Remarks

Described by Eliot 1906 in vol. 2 pt. 2 of Gardiner's "The fauna and geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes", in which the new genus Doridomorpha was simultaneously erected (pp. 544-545). Eliot himself argued in that paper that the dorid-like external form is the result of mimicry and that the genus is phylogenetically distinct from true nudibranchs.

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References

• マンジュウウミウシ（新称）, 小野篤司. (2004). 沖縄のウミウシ. ラトルズ.
• Doridomorpha gardineri, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
• マンジュウウミウシ, 中野理枝. (2018). 日本のウミウシ. 文一総合出版.