Hypselodoris variobranchia Gosliner & R. F. Johnson, 2018
- Location
- Frambo Reef, Kapalai, Borneo, Malaysia
- Date
- 2008/05/18
- Length
- 40mm
- Depth
- 10.0m
- Water temperature
- 29.0℃
Description
Living animals are moderately large, reaching 50 mm in length. The entire dorsal surface is deep purple, with a thick, solid opaque white band encircling the margin of the notum. Sides of the body and margin of the foot are the same colour as the notum. Five to nine unipinnate gill branches arise from the notum, in either deep orange or deep purple. Gill branches share a common base of the same colour. The gill pocket is well elevated and deep purple. Rhinophore bulbs are bright orange with 19-23 densely packed lamellae, and the base of the rhinophore sheath is deep purple. Mantle glands are entirely absent from the mantle margin.Distribution
Known from Queensland (Australia), Malaysia, Indonesia, Okinawa (Japan) and the Philippines. Type locality: Aphol's Rock, Tingloy, Maricaban Island, Batangas, Luzon, Philippines, 30 m depth.Etymology
Verbatim from the original description (Epstein, Hallas, Johnson, Lopez & Gosliner, 2019, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 186: p.165):The name variobranchia comes from Latin for variable gills, referring to the gill, which may be either orange or bright purple.
Remarks
Hypselodoris variobranchia is sister to a clade containing Hypselodoris bullockii, Hypselodoris melanesica, Hypselodoris brycei and Hypselodoris apolegma. Externally, it most closely resembles Hypselodoris rositoi, Hypselodoris violacea and some colour morphs of Hypselodoris iba. H. variobranchia has a purple rather than pink body colour as in H. rositoi, and orange rhinophores as opposed to the purple rhinophores of H. violacea. Both H. iba and H. variobranchia have a marginal band, but H. iba has mantle glands that are absent in H. variobranchia, and H. iba has a higher body profile.References
- ヒプセロドリス・ブロッキィ, 殿塚孝昌. (2003). ウミウシガイドブック〈3〉. TBSブリタニカ.
- ゾウゲイロウミウシ, 中野理枝. (2004). 本州のウミウシ. ラトルズ.
- Hypselodoris sp. 15, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
- カグヤヒメウミウシ, 中野理枝. (2018). 日本のウミウシ. 文一総合出版.
- Hypselodoris variobranchia 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
Featured in this book
Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2018). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific 2nd Edition. New World Pubns Inc.
New World Publications
This species, Hypselodoris variobranchia, is included in the book.
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Tag:
Same Genus Nudibranchs
Similar Colors Nudibranchs
Academic Database
Sea slug observation data is available in international marine biodiversity databases.