Pruvotfolia rhodopos (Yonow, 2000)

Description

A delicate aeolid reaching about 15 mm preserved. Body translucent yellow to pale orange; body moderately narrow with a very wide foot. Cerata club-shaped (sometimes fusiform) with a terminal nipple; translucent with an opaque peach-to-pink ring (sharply demarcated below, diffuse above) forming a distal coloured band, and a white tip. The reddish-brown digestive gland is visible as a central extension only, without ramifications. Seven or eight clusters of 6–15 cerata per side, separated by a broad gap with a swollen pericardium between the first two clusters. Pale to bright orange rhinophores with oblique lamellae; rhinophores slightly longer than the large propodial tentacles but only one third the length of the long oral tentacles, all bearing white distal speckling. Foot broad, much longer than the body, marked by a central longitudinal peach-to-pink band. Radula monoseriate with multicuspid teeth (median cusp longest, flanked by 6–7 smaller denticles each side); 21 teeth.

Distribution

Red Sea. The type locality is the northern Red Sea near Quseir (Egypt), 0.5 m depth, under stones on a sandy seabed. Photographic records also from Sharm el-Sheikh (Gulf of Aqaba) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

Etymology

The specific epithet rhodopos is the Greek for "rosy" (from rhódon, "rose" / "pink"), in reference to the diagnostic peach-to-pink subterminal ring on the cerata and the longitudinal pink band along the metapodium.

Remarks

Originally described as Facelina rhodopos Yonow ("Red Sea Opisthobranchia 4: The orders Cephalaspidea, Anaspidea, Notaspidea and Nudibranchia: Dendronotacea and Aeolidacea", Fauna of Arabia 18: 113-114, 2000). Subsequently transferred to Pruvotfolia, the genus erected by Tardy, 1969.

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References

• ムギキュウミノウミウシ（新称）, 小野篤司. (2000). ウミウシガイドブック. 第2版. TBSブリタニカ.
• Facelina rhodopos, Yonow N. (2000). Red Sea Opisthobranchia 4: The orders Cephalaspidea, Anaspidea, Notaspidea and Nudibranchia: Dendronotacea and Aeolidacea. Fauna of Arabia, 18: 87-131.
• フウセンミノウミウシ, 小野篤司. (2004). 沖縄のウミウシ. ラトルズ.
• Pruvotfolia rhodopos, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.