Paradoris liturata (Bergh, 1905)

Description

A small doridid; the preserved holotype measures 14 mm long, 7 mm wide and 4 mm high, with the gill rosette 4 mm across and the mantle border 1.25 mm wide. The dorsal ground colour is black, with a modest number of rounded white spots about 0.5 mm in diameter arranged indistinctly in four rows. The greyish mantle border is broken up by numerous fairly broad transverse stripes radiating outward from the dark ground colour; the rhinophores are black; the gill rosette of five leaves is pale greyish-white. The underside is greyish, and the black transverse stripes show strongly through the mantle border. The body is elongate-oval with the dorsum somewhat domed and the mantle border projecting all round beyond the foot. The head is small with finger-shaped oral tentacles; the foot has an almost straight anterior margin, narrow border and short tail. At first glance the species resembles a phyllidiid.

Distribution

Type locality: Sailus-Besar in the Paternoster Islands, Indonesia. The species ranges widely across the Indo-West Pacific.

Etymology

The specific epithet liturata, the feminine participial form built on Latin litura ("smear, blot"), means "smeared, blotched", in reference to the white spots scattered like blots on the black dorsal ground.

Remarks

Originally described in Discodoris with a query about its generic placement, and later transferred to Paradoris.

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References

• ディスコドリス属の一種, 殿塚孝昌. (2003). ウミウシガイドブック〈3〉. TBSブリタニカ.
• Paradoris liturata (compared), Hermosillo A. & Valdés Á. (2004). Two new species of dorid nudibranchs (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia) from Bahía de Banderas and La Paz, Mexico. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Series 4. 55(28): 550-560.
• Paradoris liturata (Bergh, 1905), Padula V. & Valdés Á. (2012). Phylogeny and Biogeography of Paradoris (Nudibranchia, Discodorididae), with the Description of a New Species from the Caribbean Sea. The Veliger. 51(3): 165-176.