Gymnodoris deniseae De Souza-Canal & Valdés, 2025

Description

Body narrow, elongate, with numerous small conical tubercles. Velum distinct, with 10 irregular protuberances/tubercles; notal rim absent, velum fusing with the dorsum posteriorly. Color translucent dirty-white to yellow; tubercles opaque yellow-orange with blurry edges; faint yellow line edges the velum. Posterior end of foot translucent grey. Internal organs hardly visible through the body wall, as orange and white masses. Rhinophores bulbous, with 9-10 lamellae, orange-brown. Gill of 10 small, simple, translucent leaves with opaque white bases, arranged in a circle around the anus, opening posteriorly. Foot wider than notum, opaque white; oral tentacles small, blunt.

Distribution

Described from shallow water (0 m) around Mouac Island, Poum, North Province, New Caledonia, and presently known only from the type locality.

Etymology

Verbatim from De Souza-Canal & Valdés 2025:

Denise Azuelos, educator, author, and outstanding collector, who found most of the specimens here studied and provided enormous help processing specimens during the Ouvéa and Poum 'quinzaines.'

Remarks

Sister to Gymnodoris subornata Baba, 1960, but the two species were recovered as distinct in the species delimitation analyses based on the material examined by Knutson & Gosliner 2022. Externally G. subornata also resembles G. deniseae sp. nov., having an elongate orange body with small conical tubercles and a distinct velum; the two species are also distinguished by their radular morphology.

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References

• Gymnodoris deniseae, Knutson V.L. & Gosliner T.M. (2022). The first phylogenetic and species delimitation study of the nudibranch genus Gymnodoris reveals high species diversity (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 171: 107470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107470
• Gymnodoris deniseae n. sp., SOUZA-CANAL J.D. & VALDÉS Á. (2025). The genus Gymnodoris Stimpson, 1855 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia) in New Caledonia, with descriptions of eleven new species. Zootaxa. 5710(1): 1-73. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5710.1.1