New records of Halgerda Bergh, 1880 (Opisthobranchia, Nudibranchia) from the deep western Pacific Ocean, with descriptions of four new species
Author
Fahey, Shireen J.
Author
Gosliner, Terrence M.
California Academy of Sciences Invertebrate Zoology and Geology Golden Gate Park San Francisco, California 94118 (USA) sfahey @ calacademy. org tgosline @ calacademy. org.
org@calacademy.org
text
Zoosystema
2000
22
3
471
498
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.5393063
1638-9387
5393063
Genus
Halgerda
Bergh, 1880
TYPE
SPECIES
. — By monotypy:
Halgerda formosa
Bergh, 1880
.
REMARKS
Gosliner & Fahey (1998) provide a list of characters thought to be consistent within the genus
Halgerda
. This list was compiled from existing literature (Rudman 1978; Carlson & Hoff 1993; Willan & Brodie 1989) and from examination by the authors of specimens of
Halgerda
. The list included the following characters: a smooth, gelatinous, yet firm body, a large gill that is sparsely pinnate, the openings to the rhinophore and gill pockets are smooth, the radular sac is elongate and curved, and the rhinophoral stalks are long relative to the club. Since the 1998 publication, additional work by the authors and by other workers with additional members of the genus has provided further insight to these characters. For example, rather than the typical elongate radular sac present in more derived members of the genus, the radular sac of
Halgerda dalanghita
Fahey & Gosliner, 1999
, a basal member of the clade, is short (Fahey & Gosliner 1999a). In addition, the phylogeny of
Halgerda
proposed by Fahey & Gosliner (1999b) suggests that the following six additional characters are shared by all members of the genus: the presence of dorsal ridges, ridge color that is different from the general body color; that is, being either orange/yellow or white, white rhinophore bulb color, the presence of gill glands, a rectangular radula shape, and a two-part prostate that is well-differentiated (except for the basal species,
H. dalanghita
). All animals examined for the present study share these six recently described characters along with the previously identified five characters.