Review of Baeolidia, the largest genus of Aeolidiidae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia), with the description of five new species
Author
Carmona, Leila
Author
Pola, Marta
Author
Gosliner, Terrence M.
Author
Cervera, Juan Lucas
text
Zootaxa
2014
3802
4
477
514
journal article
45651
10.11646/zootaxa.3802.4.5
71e8a84e-1a9b-4849-9a09-ec2023643364
1175-5326
249605
4095CA09-8EA4-4941-8286-32E95F0206AE
Baeolidia salaamica
(
Rudman, 1982
)
(
Figs. 3
D, 7C–D, 8C–D, 9A)
Spurilla salaamica
Rudman, 1982
: 173
, Figs. 21–23.
Berghia salaamica
(
Rudman, 1982
)
:
Gosliner 1985
, 261.
Type
locality.
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
.
Type
material.
According to
Rudman (1982)
, the material was deposited in the Australian Museum, Sydney (C124695).
Material examined.
CASIZ
184524, one specimen, dissected,
6 mm
in length preserved,
Japan
, Manadaru, collected by Rie Nakano,
19 April 2006
;
CASIZ
177397, one specimen, dissected,
3 mm
in length preserved,
Philippines
, Luzon
Island
, Batangas Province, Balayan Bay, Anilao, Matotonggil, collected by Terrence M. Gosliner,
18 March 2008
;
CASIZ
177599, one specimen,
2 mm
in length preserved,
Philippines
, Luzon, Batangas Province, Calumpan Peninsula, collected by Terrence M. Gosliner,
16 April 2008
.
Geographical distribution.
Originally described from Dar es Salaam (
Tanzania
) (
Rudman 1982
), this species is also known from
Papua New Guinea
(Gosliner
et al.
2008), the
Philippines
(Gosliner
et al.
2008),
Japan
(
Ono 1999
,
2004
;
Nakano 2004
),
Korea
(
Koh 2006
) and Hawaii (
Pittman & Fiene 2012b
).
External morphology
(
Fig. 3
D, 8C–D): Body short, broad, tapering close towards posterior end of foot. Foot corners tentaculiform. Body colour translucent with white marks scattered over dorsum. White ring, which may have opaque white pigmentation in centre, on head. White diamond-shape mark behind rhinophores. Rhinophores, oral tentacles and foot corners translucent with white marks. Rhinophores shorter than oral tentacles. Rhinophores studded of minute white knobs (
Fig. 3
D). Apex white. Oral tentacles with white tips.
Cerata moderately long, flattened, almost leaf-like. Branches of digestive gland shining through translucent body wall. Cerata may have white pigmentation (as speckles or covering outer side of cerata) on them. Apex translucent white. Cerata forming two arches plus three rows. Each arch or row contains 2–11 cerata, decreasing in size towards foot. Anus cleioproctic located within second right arch. Genital opening among cerata of anteriormost group on right side.
Anatomy.
Masticatory border smooth (
Fig. 7
C). Radular formulae
13 x
0.1.0 (
CASIZ
177397, 3mm
) and
19 x
0.1.0 (
CASIZ
184524, 6 mm
). Radular teeth slightly bi-arched with up to 25 moderately broad, acutely pointed denticles on either side of minute central cusp (
Fig. 7
D). Teeth progressively smaller towards posterior region of radula. Oral glands small, relatively elongate, spongy. Oral glands dorso-laterally to buccal bulb. Salivary glands absent.
Reproductive system diaulic (
Fig. 9
A). Preampullary duct widening into ampulla Postampullary duct dividing into oviduct and vas deferens. Vas deferens elongate, entering into wider proximal portion of penial sac with unarmed penial papilla. Receptaculum seminis bean-shaped, connecting to oviduct, before latter forms female glands. Vagina ventral to penis.
Remarks.
Since
Rudman (1982)
did not consider
Berghia
and
Baeolidia
as valid genera he described this species as
Spurilla
.
Gosliner (1985)
transferred
Spurilla salaamica
to
Berghia
based on its papillate rhinophores and cerata in arches. The molecular phylogeny conducted by
Carmona
et al.
(2013)
showed that
Spurilla
/
Berghia salaamica
clustered within the
Baeolidi
a clade, breaking the monophyly of
Baeolidia
.
Thus, this species was transferred to
Baeolidia
,
as the most parsimonious alternative.
Baeolidia salaamica
also shares some morphological features with other members of this genus such as the knob-like papillae of the rhinophores (similar to those found in
B. moebii
), the leaf-like cerata and the cerata arrangement in arches and rows (also in e.g.
B. japonica
). Therefore, we can confirm that
B. salaamica
belongs to this genus.
FIGURE 9.
Reproductive system. (A)
Baeolidia salaamica
,
specimen from Japan (CASIZ 184525); (B)
Baeolidia rieae
sp. nov.
, specimen from Japan (CASIZ 184525); (C)
Baeolidia variabilis
sp. nov.
, specimen from the Philippines (CASIZ 177715); (D)
Baeolidia lunaris
sp. nov.
, specimen from Tanzania (CASIZ 099221). Scale bars: A–D, 0.5 mm. Abbreviations: am, ampulla; fgm, female gland mass; ps, penial sac; rs, receptaculum seminis; va, vagina; vd, vas deferens.
Concerning the original description, only one of our specimens from the
Philippines
(
Fig. 8
D) matches completely with Rudman’s (1982) diagnosis.
Figure 8
C shows that the other specimen from the
Philippines
has somewhat large white patches over the outer side of the cerata. Moreover, none of the specimens here examined bear a denticulate masticatory border (
Fig. 7
C) as
Rudman (1982)
stated in the original description. Based on our results in previous studies (
Carmona
et al.
2014a
,
b
,
c
) we conclude that the latter morphological feature is not significant in
Aeolidiidae
.
The translucent body, the white ring on the head, the white diamond-shape mark just behind the rhinophores, and mainly the kind of rhinophoral papillae, which is exclusive of
Baeolidia
but being only present in
B. moebii
and
B. australis
, allow us to distinguish
B. salaamica
from other species of this genus. Concerning the anatomical characters, it seems that
B. salaamica
has the wider radular teeth denticles of
Baeolidia
(
Fig. 7
D).
Carmona
et al.
(2013)
studied this species from a molecular approach (
Fig. 1
).