Hypselodoris whitei (Adams & Reeve, 1850)

Hypselodoris whitei was not uncommon at Enewetak Atoll but has been pretty hard to come by at Kwajalein. They are typically found on lagoon interisland reefs, under or exposed on rocks in 3 to 15 meters of water. Many were found on the pilings of Medren Island pier. The first three photos below are of specimens from Enewetak. Often this species is found eating the purple sponge shown in two of the photos below. 23 specimens measured ranged from 16 to 46mm in length. In the specimen immediately below, the round white circle with the central dot within the circlet of gills on the right side is the anus. What a place to dump one's wastes--right where it is trying to breathe.

Of the two photos directly below, the upper is from Enewetak Atoll and the lower from Kwajalein Atoll. Not only is the mantle color different due to the crosshatching in the Enewetak specimen, but also what is visible of the foot coloration is quite different as well.

The pair below have been working on this purple sponge for some time. In the upper part of the photo to the left of the middle, you can see where the nudibranchs have eaten all the sponge tissue, leaving the naked spongin fibers. This is another shot from Enewetak.

The next three photos show two of the five specimens so far recorded from Kwajalein Atoll. One of these has none of the crosshatching seen in all Enewetak specimens, and in the other this crosshatching is less pronounced than in those from Enewetak. These two were found as a pair at a depth of 10m in a lagoon Halimeda patch.

This is the most recent Kwajalein specimen, found 15 September 2008.

Created 21December 2005
Updated 19 September 2008