Opisthobranch molluscs from the Chagos Archipelago, Central Indian Ocean
Author
Yonow, Nathalie
Author
Anderson, R. Charles
Author
Buttress, Susan G.
text
Journal of Natural History
2002
2002-05-31
36
7
831
882
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222930110039161
journal article
10.1080/00222930110039161
1464-5262
Phyllidiopsis cardinalis
Bergh, 1875
(®gure 19b)
Phyllidiopsis cardinalis
Bergh
:
Eliot, 1904c: 284
;
Gosliner and Behrens, 1988: 308
, ®gures 1B, 3;
Brunckhorst, 1993: 63
, numerous ®gures.
Phyllidia tuberculata
Risbec, 1928: 59
, ®gure 3, pl. 1, ®gure 2; 1953: 12.
Material.
Chag96/75: 383
16 mm
; Three Brothers, Great Chagos Bank;
29 February 1996
; at
20 m
depth. Chag96/81: live length not recorded; curled, approx.
25 mm
preserved; Three Brothers, Great Chagos Bank;
2 March 1996
; at
22 m
depth.
Description.
Dorsal surface with numerous large complex tubercles and smaller simple ones. Colour mottled cream, brown and yellow in specimen 96/75 (®gure 19b), red-brown in specimen 96/81. Mantle margin cream or yellow with black or dark green spots. Yellow anal papilla. Ventral surface of foot deep yellow with irregular brown spots around periphery. Rhinophores short, pale yellow with green tips.
The preserved animals retain the three rows (not two as in
Brunckhorst, 1993
) of multicompound tubercles. Both specimens are uniformly very dark, a reddish black; the formaldehyde is tinted pink.
Geographic distribution.
Indo-West Paci®c.
Phyllidiopsis cardinalis
is well known from the Paci®c but has been rarely recorded from the Indian Ocean:
Eliot (1904c)
recorded
four specimens
from
Zanzibar
;
Gosliner and Behrens (1988)
had
one specimen
from Aldabra, and
Brunckhorst (1993)
had
two specimens
from Western Australia and three from ReÂunion. N. Y. has photographs of one individual from