Notobryon wardi Odhner, 1936

Location: Pura segara, Tulamben, Pulau Bali, Indonesia
Date: 2015/05/26
Length: 10mm
Depth: 15.0m
Water temperature: 29.0℃

Description

A small dendronotid sea slug, typically 20-25 mm in length. The body sides are smooth, giving an algae-like overall appearance. The dorsum bears two pairs of large dorsal lobes set on elongate bases, the anterior pair slightly larger, with a U-shaped trough running between them. Each lobe carries finely branched, feather-like secondary gills on its inner face. The body is translucent whitish to pale brown, decorated with bright blue and orange small spots that complete the cryptic algal mimicry.

Distribution

The type locality is off Gatcombe Head, Port Curtis, Queensland, eastern Australia, at 16 m depth. The species was originally thought to occur across the tropical Indo-Pacific, the eastern Pacific, and temperate South Africa, but molecular and morphological work in 2012 separated the eastern Pacific and South African populations as Notobryon panamica and Notobryon thompsoni respectively, restricting N. wardi to the Indo-West Pacific tropics. Currently recorded from eastern Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan (Okinawa and elsewhere), Hawaii, and the Marshall Islands.

Etymology

Named in honour of M. Ward, who collected the type specimens off Queensland in July 1929.

Remarks

The type species of Notobryon. A cryptic species closely matching the algae among which it lives, typically found on weedy substrates or drifting algae. A 2012 molecular revision of Scyllaeidae re-examined the Odhner type material housed in the Swedish Museum of Natural History and designated a lectotype (SMNH 8092).