Thecacera picta Baba, 1972
- Location
- Secret Garden, Anilao, Philippines
- Date
- 2016/04/18
- Length
- 20mm
- Depth
- 14.0m
- Water temperature
- 28.7℃
Description
Ground color of the body is translucent yellowish white, overlaid by a striking pattern of chocolate-brown bands. The bands appear in five sets: (1) along the mid-dorsal line in front of the gill; (2) along the lower half of the lateral body margin, continuing onto the lower half of the rhinophoral sheaths and of the post-branchial appendages; (3) on a crescent-shaped ridge at the outer base of each rhinophoral sheath; (4) along each side of the body; and (5) on the foot-brim.The tips of the rhinophoral and post-branchial appendages, the foot-corners, and the tail are vividly tinted orange-yellow. The rhinophore is orange-yellow on the perfoliated portion and yellowish white on the stalk. The gill consists of seven bipinnate plumes set around the anus; it is yellowish white, with the largest plumes bearing orange-yellow pigment at the tip and a longitudinal chocolate-brown vein on the outer side of the rachis. The sole is uniformly yellowish white.
Fully extended living animals reach about 10 mm in length.
The crescent-shaped ridge at the outer base of each rhinophoral sheath, together with the vivid color pattern, distinguishes this species from its congeners.
Distribution
Type locality: Uchiura coast (35°02′N, 138°53′E) near Osezaki, in the northeastern part of Suruga Bay, central Japan, at 35 m depth. The type material was collected by SCUBA divers from Tokai University Marine Science Museum on 17 November 1971.The species is now widely recorded across the Indo-West Pacific, including Tanzania, the Maldives, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Japan.
Etymology
From the Latin pictus ("painted", feminine picta).Remarks
The Japanese name "Tsunozaya-umiushi" was proposed in the same paper (Baba, 1972), alluding to the elongated paired post-branchial processes — reminiscent of a horn sheath (tsuno-zaya) — projecting behind the gill.The species is readily separated from the type species of the genus, Thecacera pennigera (Montagu, 1815), by its distinctive coloration and by the presence of the crescent-shaped ridge at the outer base of each rhinophoral sheath.
References
- Thecacera picta Baba, spec. nov. (Tsunozaya-umiushi), Baba K. (1972). Thecacera picta n. sp., from Sagami Bay, Central Japan (Nudibranchia: Doridoidea: Polyceridae). The Veliger. 15(2): 88-90.
- ツノザヤウミウシ,コクテンツノザヤウミウシ（仮称）, 益田一. (1999). 海洋生物ガイドブック. 東海大学出版会.
- ツノザヤウミウシ, 鈴木敬宇. (2000). ウミウシガイドブック〈2〉. TBSブリタニカ.
- ツノザヤウミウシ, 殿塚孝昌. (2003). ウミウシガイドブック〈3〉. TBSブリタニカ.
- ツノザヤウミウシ, 小野篤司. (2004). 沖縄のウミウシ. ラトルズ.
- ツノザヤウミウシ, 中野理枝. (2004). 本州のウミウシ. ラトルズ.
- ツノザヤウミウシ, 小野篤司 & 加藤昌一. (2009). ウミウシ. 誠文堂新光社.
- Thecacera picta, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific. New World Pubns Inc.
Featured in this book
Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2018). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific 2nd Edition. New World Pubns Inc.
New World Publications
This species, Thecacera picta, is included in the book.
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Tag:
Same Genus Nudibranchs
Similar Colors Nudibranchs
Academic Database
Sea slug observation data is available in international marine biodiversity databases.