Mexichromis macropus Rudman, 1983
- Location
- Rapid Bay Jetty, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Date
- 2025/02/14
- Length
- 200mm
- Depth
- 7.0m
- Water temperature
- 22.0℃
Description
Mantle white with a purple wash over the central region, and scattered purple spots that may be flush with the surface or raised as distinct purple-tipped tubercles or conical papillae. Bright orange streaks run along the mantle margin at right angles to the edge (in one Sydney specimen they appear as squarish spots rather than streaks). Rhinophore club purple, more intense distally and fading toward the white stalk. Gills white, edged with purple. Underside white with a purple band, especially toward the posterior. Striking colour variation: a Geographe Bay (WA) specimen has a distinctly purple ground colour, and a Sydney Harbour specimen has a purple ground with many raised purple tubercles. Body length 9-19 mm preserved.Distribution
Type locality is Western River Cove, on the north side of Kangaroo Island, South Australia (10 m depth, March 1978). Also recorded from Camp Cove (Sydney Harbour, NSW); Normanville (40 miles south of Adelaide) and Kangaroo Island, South Australia; Dunsborough, Brusselton Jetty (Geographe Bay), and Sorrento Reef (near Perth) in Western Australia. Depth range intertidal to 17 m. Apparently endemic to the southern Australian temperate coast.Etymology
The specific epithet macropus refers to the genus name of the kangaroo, Macropus, which is common on Kangaroo Island, the type locality (verbatim from the original description). The Greek-derived meaning "large-footed" applies to the kangaroo genus name itself, not to any feature of the nudibranch.Remarks
Described as a new species directly in Mexichromis (Rudman, 1983). The combination of raised purple tubercles and bright orange marginal streaks gives the species an unusually striking appearance among congeners. Radular morphology suggests an affinity with Mexichromis festiva and Mexichromis mariei, but those species are much smaller, less variable in colour, and lack the raised tubercles and perpendicular orange marginal streaks of Mexichromis macropus.References
- Mexichromis Bertsch, 1977 (genus erection), Bertsch H. (1977). The Chromodoridinae nudibranchs from the Pacific coast of America. Part I. Investigative methods and supraspecific taxonomy. The Veliger. 20(2): 107-118.
- Mexichromis macropus n. sp., Rudman W.B. (1983). The Chromodorididae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Indo-West Pacific: Chromodoris splendida, C. aspersa and Hypselodoris placida colour groups. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 78(2): 105-173.
- Mexichromis mariei, Helmut Debelius, Rudie H. Kuiter. (2007). Nudibranchs of the World.
- Mexichromis macropus, Johnson R.F. & Gosliner T.M. (2012). Traditional taxonomic groupings mask evolutionary history: a molecular phylogeny and new classification of the chromodorid nudibranchs. PLoS ONE 7(4): e33479.
- レンゲウミウシ, 中野理枝. (2018). 日本のウミウシ. 文一総合出版.
- メキシクロミス・マクロープス, 小野篤司 & 加藤昌一. (2020). 新版 ウミウシ. 誠文堂新光社.
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小野篤司 & 加藤昌一. (2020). 新版 ウミウシ. 誠文堂新光社.
誠文堂新光社
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Tag:
Same Genus Nudibranchs
Similar Colors Nudibranchs
Academic Database
Sea slug observation data is available in international marine biodiversity databases.