Doto greenamyeri Shipman & Gosliner, 2015

Description

A small short-bodied dotid reaching 15 mm in length (preserved specimen ~7 mm). The notum bears 4–5 pairs of broad cerata that almost completely obscure the dorsum. Each ceras displays 3–5 stacked concentric rings, either solid gray to black-brown or outlined in gray to black-brown, giving the cerata the appearance of a honey-dipper or a stack of pancakes — a feature unique among Indo-Pacific Doto. A conspicuous fine gold-orange ring surrounds each concentric ring and the nipple-like terminal tubercle. On the lower medial face of each ceras are two dark gray semi-U-shaped bands enclosing a small circular opening, and a ruffled pseudobranch occupies the lateral and dorsal sides of the basal figure-eight. The rhinophores are dark brown, edged in gold-orange, with a gray tip; the narrow rhinophoral sheath is white at its base and bears a black band above. Two upward-directed gold loops sit on the head, in line with and below the rhinophores. The oral veil is auriform, edged in fine opaque white, followed dorsally by a black-brown band and a gold-orange band. A thick gold-orange longitudinal band runs along the lateral surface of the body, and a very thick black-brown band runs along the entire dorsum, connecting to the black pigment behind the rhinophores; this dorsal band is sometimes outlined in gold.
The species exhibits several color morphs. A dark morph has dark gray body, rhinophores, and cerata with prominent gold-orange concentric rings. A light morph lacks the gray to black-brown stacked rings entirely and possesses only fine gold-orange concentric rings. The radular formula is 38 × 0.1.0; each tooth forms a pointed arch with 8–9 ventral denticles and 4–5 denticles on either side of a pointed medial cusp.

Distribution

Papua New Guinea (Milne Bay Province, Samarai Island in Kwato Channel, 20 m depth) and Indonesia. Feeds on an unidentified plumularid hydroid.

Etymology

Verbatim from the original description (Shipman & Gosliner, 2015):

Named after friend and avid videographer, John Greenamyer, who first photographed this species in Papua New Guinea (Gosliner et al. 2008).

Remarks

Originally figured as Doto sp. 9 in a 2008 reference work. In the molecular phylogeny presented by Shipman & Gosliner 2015, D. greenamyeri is sister to the rest of the short-bodied Indo-Pacific clade. The distinctive concentric-ring pattern of the cerata immediately distinguishes this species from all other Indo-Pacific Doto; this character alone is sufficient for identification. Because the species belongs to the short-bodied Doto clade, it was retained in Doto and not transferred to the new genus Kabeiro.

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References

• Doto greenamyeri, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
• Doto greenamyeri n. sp., Shipman C. & Gosliner T.M. (2015). Molecular and morphological systematics of Doto Oken, 1851 (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia), with descriptions of five new species and a new genus. Zootaxa. 3973(1): 1-49. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3973.1.1
• ドーナツマツカサウミウシ（新称）, 中野理枝. (2018). 日本のウミウシ. 文一総合出版.