Verconia laboutei (Rudman, 1986)

Location: Gorilla Chop, Okinawa Island (Motobu and Northern area), Okinawa, Japan
Date: 2022/04/04
Length: 5mm
Depth: 12.0m
Water temperature: 21.0℃

Description

Body color yellow, with rounded white spots along the mantle margin. The dorsum typically displays a white reticulate pattern resembling the surface of its food sponge, likely serving as camouflage. Rhinophoral lamellae wine red. Gills translucent with wine red edges and tips on the lamellae. This species belongs to the Noumea flava color group but is distinguished from other members by its red rhinophores and gills, whereas the others have translucent yellow organs. Holotype 11 mm preserved.

Distribution

Type locality is Ilot Gi, New Caledonia, at 12 m depth. The describing author Rudman confirmed specimens from New Caledonia, Australia (Queensland and New South Wales), and Indonesia as this species. Also recorded from Japan.

Etymology

The specific epithet laboutei honors Pierre Laboute, a French marine biologist and underwater photographer at the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement), who collected the holotype specimen. Laboute made significant contributions to the study of marine fauna in the New Caledonian lagoon.

Remarks

A member of the family Chromodorididae. Originally described as Noumea laboutei by Rudman in 1986, and subsequently transferred to Verconia based on molecular phylogenetic revision. Feeds on yellow sponges. The original description (Rudman, 1986) is notably minimal, based solely on a single photograph and a brief French note "jaune avec branchies et antennes violets" (yellow, with purple gills and antennae), with no mention of the dorsal reticulate pattern. However, the describing author Rudman himself subsequently identified specimens with reticulate mantles from New Caledonia, Australia, and Indonesia as this species on the Sea Slug Forum (2005-2008), and the present description follows his interpretation. Gosliner et al. 2018 treated a similar western Pacific specimen as Verconia cf. laboutei, but Rudman own identifications are given precedence here.