Melibe colemani Gosliner & Pola, 2012

Description

A small, narrow, transparent species reaching about 12 mm preserved. Cream-white interconnecting digestive gland tubules are visible through the transparent integument. The oral hood is relatively small with a circular margin and a single row of thin elongate papillae on its dorsal surface. The well-separated rhinophore sheaths each bear a single elongate apical papilla. Four wedge-shaped, laterally flattened cerata occur on each side, fringed with 5–6 conical papillae along the lateral margins and 4–6 elongate papillae along the distal margins. The cerata are easily autotomized at their bases.

Distribution

Type locality: Mabul Island, Borneo, Malaysia, 6–8 m depth. Also recorded from Indonesia.

Etymology

Named in honour of the late Neville Coleman, a renowned Australian underwater naturalist who himself collected the holotype (MV 112465, 12 mm, August 2004) at Mabul Island. The original etymology reads: "named in honour of its discoverer, the late Neville Coleman, a friend and colleague who contributed greatly to our understanding and documentation of marine diversity, particularly in the tropics of the Indo-Pacific and Australia. His dynamic presence will be greatly missed."

Remarks

The holotype was found embedded within a colony of the soft coral Briareum, with only the cerata visible above the surface. The transparent body and visible digestive gland branches make the animal extremely cryptic on tropical reefs. Externally similar to Melibe bucephala and Melibe engeli, but distinguished from both by its laterally flattened (rather than cylindrical) cerata.

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References

• Melibe sp., Coleman N. (2008). Nudibranchs Encyclopedia: Catalogue of Asia/Indo-Pacific Sea Slugs. Neville Coleman's Underwater Geographic Pty Ltd, Springwood, Australia. 416 pp.
• Melibe sp. 4, Gosliner T.M., Behrens D.W. & Valdés Á. (2008). Indo-Pacific Nudibranchs and Sea Slugs: A field guide to the world's most diverse fauna. Sea Challengers Natural History Books, 426 pp.
• Melibe colemani sp. nov., Gosliner T.M. & Pola M. (2012). Diversification of filter-feeding nudibranchs: two remarkable new species of Melibe (Opisthobranchia: Tethyiidae) from the tropical western Pacific. Systematics and Biodiversity. 10(3): 333-349.
• Melibe colemani, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
• イトクズメリべ（新称）, 中野理枝. (2018). 日本のウミウシ. 文一総合出版.