Hypselodoris katherinae Gosliner & R. F. Johnson, 2018

Description

Living animals are moderately large, 20-32 mm in length. The body is long, slender and translucent pink to peach. Fine parallel or intersecting red longitudinal lines or interrupted dashes occur on the notum, sides of the body and foot. Larger individuals have scattered opaque white tubercles and scattered blue-purple spots that may form a near-continuous fine line, with denser pigment in the centre of each spot. Seven to nine unipinnate gill branches have a translucent white base and inner margin and bright red-orange pigment on the inner and outer surfaces of the rachis and on some gill filaments. Rhinophores are red anteriorly with a translucent white anterior face on the bulb and an opaque white posterior face; the bulb has eight to 16 lamellae.

Distribution

Known from the Philippines, eastern Malaysia and Indonesia.

Etymology

Named for Katherine Piatek, Senior Program Manager of the Institute of Biodiversity Science and Sustainability at the California Academy of Sciences, whose support has been crucial to the successful completion of many research expeditions in the Philippines.

Remarks

Hypselodoris katherinae belongs to a clade that includes Hypselodoris paradisa, Hypselodoris skyleri, Hypselodoris maritima, Hypselodoris rudmani and Hypselodoris bertschi. Within that clade H. katherinae is sister to H. paradisa and H. skyleri. The three species all have longitudinal lines, but the lines are opaque white in H. paradisa and brown in H. skyleri. H. katherinae is unique among described members of Hypselodoris in having longitudinal red lines or dashes. The type locality is Pulau Chebeh, off the NW tip of Tioman Island, eastern Malaysia.

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References

• クロモドリス属の一種, 殿塚孝昌. (2003). ウミウシガイドブック〈3〉. TBSブリタニカ.
• Hypselodoris sp. 8, Hypselodoris sp. 9, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
• アオウミウシ属の1種 13 ?, 中野理枝. (2018). 日本のウミウシ. 文一総合出版.
• Hypselodoris katherinae, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2018). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific 2nd Edition. New World Pubns Inc.
• Hypselodoris katherinae sp. nov., Epstein H.E., Hallas J.M., Johnson R.F., Lopez A. & Gosliner T.M. (2019). Reading between the lines: revealing cryptic species diversity and colour patterns in Hypselodoris nudibranchs (Mollusca: Heterobranchia: Chromodorididae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 186(1): 116-189. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zly048