Mexichromis multituberculata (Baba, 1953)
Description
Body 20-50 mm long. The dorsum is strongly ornamented with large, bluntly conical tubercles, with smaller tubercles interspersed between them and around the branchial opening. Dorsal tubercles are tipped with purple. Ground colour varies from yellowish white to pale yellow, with the mantle margin bordered either by a broad orange band or by a discontinuous series of orange or purple marks. In the holotype (Baba, 1953) the ground colour was almost everywhere chrome-yellow, and the rhinophores, branchial plumes, foot margin and tip of the oral tentacles were purple. The rhinophores are pale at the base and purple at the apex; the branchial plumes likewise have pale bases and purple-tipped lamellae. Four marginal cysts open along the postero-ventral edge of the mantle.Distribution
Type locality: Seto, Kii Province, Japan (single specimen, August 1951). Widely recorded across the western Pacific, including Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Indonesia.Etymology
The specific epithet multituberculata is Latin for "many-tubercled" (multi-, many; tuberculata, bearing tubercles), referring to the numerous dorsal tubercles that ornament the back. The Japanese name Renge-umiushi was proposed in the same paper (Baba, 1953).Remarks
Originally described in Glossodoris, the species was subsequently transferred to Mexichromis (Bertsch, 1977). A 1953 paper distinguished it from Glossodoris nodulosa (Bergh) by the radular tooth morphology, and from G. papulosa (Bergh) by the size and arrangement of the dorsal tubercles.References
- Glossodoris multituberculata BABA n. sp. Renge-umiushi (new name), Baba K. (1953). THREE NEW SPECIES AND TWO NEW RECORDS OF THE GENUS GLOSSODORIS FROM JAPAN. Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory. 3(2): 205-211. https://doi.org/10.5134/174468
- Mexichromis multituberculata (Baba, 1953), 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.
- レンゲウミウシ, 鈴木敬宇. (2000). ウミウシガイドブック〈2〉. TBSブリタニカ.
- レンゲウミウシ, 殿塚孝昌. (2003). ウミウシガイドブック〈3〉. TBSブリタニカ.
- レンゲウミウシ, 中野理枝. (2004). 本州のウミウシ. ラトルズ.
- レンゲウミウシ, 小野篤司. (2004). 沖縄のウミウシ. ラトルズ.
- Mexichromis multituberculata, 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.
- Mexichromis multituberculata, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
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, Mexichromis multituberculata, 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.