Trapania lemnalioides Smirnoff, Donohoo & Gosliner, 2022

MORPHOLOGY

Body opaque, slightly pink and covered unevenly in a frosting of white pigmentation. The rhinophores, evenly wide along their length, have four to five lamellae with a pointed tip and are particularly white at their apex. The bipinnate gill plume is small and white, consisting of three branches. Both extrarhinophoral and extra-branchial appendages are average sized and particularly white. The anterior margins of the foot extend laterally as elongate appendages are more translucent than the rest of the body and are slightly longer than the oral tentacles. The long, conical oral tentacles and oral veil are particularly white. The white pigmentation on the dorsal ridge of the most posterior portion of the foot appears as if it is clumpy

DISTRIBUTION

Known only from the Philippines.

ETYMOLOGY

This species named for its resemblance to the octocoral genus Lemnalia, with which this species is often associated.

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References

• Trapania sp. 2, Terrence Gosliner, Ángel Valdés and David Behrens. (2018). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific 2nd Edition. New World Pubns Inc.
• Trapania lemanioides sp. nov., Smirnoff D.S., Donohoo S.A. & Gosliner T.M. (2022). Extra-branchial processes manifest extra diversity: systematics of the genus Trapania (Nudibranchia: Goniodorididae) and nine new species descriptions. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 196(1): 270-313. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac009
• 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