Gymnodoris suggens (Risbec, 1928)

Location: Tengan(Kombu), Okinawa Island (East coast), Okinawa, Japan
Date: 2015/05/16
Length: 10mm
Depth: 5.0m
Water temperature: 24.0℃

Description

Body narrow to elongate, smooth, lacking tubercles. Velum distinct with a few irregular tubercles; notal rim absent, the velum merging into the notum. Posterior end of foot tapering into a long narrow tail. Colour translucent white with numerous oval yellow to orange spots, plus a large irregular opaque white patch anterior to the gill and a smaller diamond-shaped opaque white patch posterior to the rhinophores. Some specimens additionally show minute brown spots over the dorsum. Internal organs visible through the body wall as brown, white, or occasionally orange areas. Rhinophores very elongate and tentacular, with 8 lamellae; stalk translucent white, club brownish-grey with yellow or orange tips. Gill of 15-17 small simple leaves arranged in a circle around the anus, translucent with yellow tips and opaque white bases. Oral tentacles absent. Reaches 15 mm.

Distribution

New Caledonia (type locality: Nouméa, Port Despointes, Tembia), Madagascar, Philippines, Japan, Hawaii, and elsewhere in the tropical Indo-West Pacific.

Remarks

Originally described as Trevelyana suggens Risbec, 1928 (Faune des Colonies Françaises 2(1): 190-193) and redescribed from New Caledonian material by De Souza-Canal & Valdés 2025. The externally similar Gymnodoris sp. L (Knutson & Gosliner, 2022) is a genetically distinct sister taxon, and some prior Indo-Pacific records of G. suggens may belong to this undescribed species.