Gymnodoris nigricolor Baba, 1960

Gymnodoris nigricolor is known from the Marshalls one specimen found on Enewetak Atoll and another from Kwajalein. They measured 9-10mm in length and were found crawling across sand at depths of 10-15 meters. The Enewetak specimen was on a lagoon pinnacle reef on 13 May 1983 and the one from Kwajalein near a lagoon interisland reef Halimeda patch on 25 May 2008. Since it's hard to tell much from a photo of a black animal, my notes on the living animal are below.

The body is small, soft, and limaciform, with a very long and slender tail. Color is black, but at 12-25x this is seen as translucent gray very densely speckled with black. There are very small pustules about where mantle margin should be, especially in V shape anterior end. Foot margin is bluish white. Reproductive opening is about one-third of the way between the rhinophores and gills. Rhinophores are close set, each with about 8 oblique lamellae, and are colored bluish black. Gills are small, set in a semicircle, and colored bluish black.

Created 1 January 2007
Updated 24 June 2008