Sclerodoris ? sp. e406

The genus Sclerodoris for this species is purely conjecture at this point. The animal kind of resembles the description of Halgerda apiculata in Kay & Young, 1969. It does not, however, look much like the Sclerodoris apiculata figured on the Sea Slug Forum. The internal anatomy has not been examined. Only two quite differently colored specimens have been found in the Marshalls; one was at a depth of 12m on the cave wall of a lagoon pinnacle in Kwajalein Atoll at night while the other came from a patch of Halimeda algae in 25m of water on an eastern lagoon reef. We've also found a nearly identical, but larger, specimen in Hawaii. As is evident from the photo, the dorsum sports a network or ridges that surround some very deep, rounded pits. There are small, fleshy tendrils extending up from where some of the ridges intersect, plus a row of similar tendrils along the darker brown, middorsal line. The Kwajalein specimens measured 22 and 27mm. The first shot below is of the lagoon pinnacle specimen; the yellow one came from the Halimeda patch.

The soft tendrils extending up from some of the ridges are most visible below.

Created 15 December 2006
Updated 24 June 2008

Reference:

Kay, E.A. & D.K. Young. 1969. The Doridacea (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Hawaiian Islands. Pacific Science 23:172-231.