Gymnodoris lebouteillerorum De Souza-Canal & Valdés, 2025

Description

Body narrow, elongate, with numerous small conical tubercles mainly arranged around the notal rim and a few on the dorsum and velum. Velum distinct, with 16 tubercles. Color translucent dirty-white; tubercles orange-red with blurry edges; faint orange-red line connecting velum tubercles, with notal rim tubercles also tinged orange-red; faint longitudinal white line on the posterior end of foot. Internal organs visible through the body wall as orange and white masses. Rhinophores conical, with 6 lamellae, orange-red. Gill of 6 small, simple, translucent leaves with opaque white bases arranged in a row. Foot wider than notum, opaque white, notched anteriorly with anterior lobes; oral tentacles small, blunt. Radular formula 8 × 9.0.9 in the 5 mm preserved holotype; innermost lateral teeth small, hook-shaped, with straight, flat smooth cusps and broad bases; other lateral teeth elongate, with broad bases, long, slightly curved cusps. Reproductive system with an elongate, narrow, slightly curved ampulla; prostate large, tubular, curved around the bursa copulatrix. Penial spines triangular to elongate (about 100-120 µm) with relatively broad bases.

Distribution

Type locality: East of Karembé, Koumac, North Province, New Caledonia, 2-5 m on sandy bottom. Currently known only from the type locality.

Etymology

Verbatim from De Souza-Canal & Valdés 2025:

This species is named in honor of Cathy and Aubert Le Bouteiller, indefatigable naturalists, who provided support during the 'quinzaines' and collected numerous specimes.

(sic — "specimes" in the original; the specific epithet "lebouteillerorum" is the Latin genitive plural reflecting the dedication to two persons.)

Remarks

Member of the same monophyletic group as the undescribed New Caledonian taxa (Gymnodoris sp. 24, sp. 48 and sp. 54 sensu Knutson & Gosliner 2022), all of which it resembles externally. However, Gymnodoris sp. 48 and Gymnodoris sp. 54 are easily distinguished by a much denser pattern of very small orange dots on the dorsum, darker rhinophores, and orange pigment in the branchial leaves (see Knutson & Gosliner 2022), all absent in G. lebouteillerorum sp. nov. Gymnodoris sp. 24 differs in having more orange tubercles on the dorsum and body sides and an orange dot at the posterior end of the foot.

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References

• Gymnodoris lebouteillerorum, 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 lebouteillerorum De Souza-Canal & Valdés sp. nov., 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