Pelagella albopunctata Paz-Sedano, Smirnoff, Gosliner & Pola, 2023

Description

Body elongate, 6–12 mm in preserved specimens. Mantle edge short, thickened and raised, surrounding the body and truncated behind the gill. Body dark brown with numerous white-tipped tubercles that aggregate into opaque white patches, more concentrated along the dorsal notum. Notal edge yellow-greenish. Rhinophores nonretractile, with 8–10 lamellae each, white posteriorly and mottled brown and white anteriorly. Gill formed by three tripinnate branches arranged in a star around the anus. Oral tentacles and gill branches the same colour as the background. Foot bears a small caudal crest at its posterior end.

Distribution

Known from the Marshall Islands and the Philippines. Type locality: Kwajalein-Sar Pass, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, 5 m depth.

Etymology

The specific epithet albopunctata is Latin for "white-spotted".

Remarks

Found on colonial tunicates on shallow rocky reefs. Described by Paz-Sedano et al. 2023 together with the resurrection of Pelagella Gray, 1850, which had long been treated as a junior synonym of Goniodoris. Specimens previously figured as Goniodoris sp. 4 / sp. 5 / sp. 10 in Gosliner et al. 2015/2018 are referable to this species.

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References

• Goniodoris sp. 4 / sp. 5 / sp. 10 (Gosliner et al. 2015), Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
• Goniodoris sp. (Gosliner et al. 2018), Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2018). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific 2nd Edition. New World Pubns Inc.
• Pelagella albopunctata n. sp., Paz-Sedano S., Smirnoff D., Gosliner T.M. & Pola M. (2023). When a genus must become two: resurrection of Pelagella Gray, 1850 with the description of six new species. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 89(2): eyad008. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyad008
• Paz-Sedano S., Moles J., Smirnoff D., Gosliner T.M. & Pola M. (2024). A combined phylogenetic strategy illuminates the evolution of Goniodorididae nudibranchs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Heterobranchia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 192: 107990. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107990