Tambja gabrielae Pola, Cervera & Gosliner, 2005

Description

Body elongate and limaciform, with a long pointed tail. Preserved animals 15–40 mm long; living specimens may reach 45 mm. Ground colour dark green, with bright yellow patches scattered across the notum. A wide bright yellow band runs along the edge of the notum, continuing to the posterior end behind the gills, and a similar lateral band runs along each flank, broken posteriorly but extending forward to cover the oral tentacles. Additional yellow patches lie between the rhinophores and gills anteriorly and form an irregular pattern posteriorly. Rhinophoral sheaths and oral tentacle sheaths are dark green, while the rhinophores themselves and the oral tentacles are bright yellow. Three bipinnate gills surround the anal papilla; their inner and outer rachis are yellow and the base of the gill circle is bright yellow. Foot linear and yellow. Genital pore opens on the right side, midway between gills and rhinophores. Small lateral slots of unknown function lie between the rhinophores and oral tentacles.

Distribution

Indonesia (Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi; Banda Sea) and Papua New Guinea. Type locality: Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi.

Etymology

Verbatim from the original description:

This species is dedicated to Gabriela Pola, the first niece of the first author of this paper.

Remarks

Readily separated from congeners by its dark green ground colour with large scattered yellow patches. The species is also distinguished anatomically (radula and penial armature) — see the original description for detail.

---

References

• Tambja sp. 5 (Rudman, Sea Slug Forum), Rudman W.B. (1998-2010). Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. http://www.seaslugforum.net/
• タンビア属の一種, 殿塚孝昌. (2003). ウミウシガイドブック〈3〉. TBSブリタニカ.
• Tambja gabrielae n.sp., Pola M., Cervera J.L. & Gosliner T.M. (2005). Four new species of Tambja Burn, 1962 (Nudibranchia: Polyceridae) from the Indo-Pacific. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 71(3): 257-267. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyi034
• Tambja gabrielae, 奥谷喬司. (2015). 日本近海産貝類図鑑. 第二版. 東海大学出版部.
• ガブリエラウミウシ（新称）, 中野理枝. (2018). 日本のウミウシ. 文一総合出版.