Goniodoris aspera (Alder & Hancock, 1864)

This species shows up in the literature and on the web as Goniodoris joubini, but I'm going to stick my neck out and call it G. aspera. The figure in Alder & Hancock's original description looks enough like this species that I think it is the same. Somewhere between 60 and 70 specimens of this species were found at Enewetak, Bikini, and Kwajalein Atolls. Unfortunately, I cannot say exactly how many since for part of that period, I was lumping this species with what I now believe is a similar but separate species, Goniodoris cf aspera, which memory tells me was considerably less common than the true G. aspera. Specimens ranged from 6 to 17mm in length, and were mostly found on lagoon reefs and pinnacles under dead coral. The largest specimen at 17mm was found attached to a piling under an old pier at Medren Island, Enewetak Atoll.

The two below are a lot more sparsely speckled than normal, and it is possible they belong with Goniodoris cf aspera.

One of the two specimens below probably deposited the egg mass in the center.

Below is the figure of Goniodoris aspera from Alder & Hancock (1864). A summary of their description follows: Elongate, densely and minutely freckled with dark chocolate brown. Margins slightly sinuate with the sides and front turned up like a rounded lobe. Pale margin with black and yellow spots and an irregular pale line down each side of the mantle. Obtuse carinated ridge from the tail to the dorsum. Rhinophores colored as body. Gills 5 small stalks, bi or tripinnate, freckled dark above with yellow tips.

Created 3 January 2007

Reference:

Alder, J. & A. Hancock. 1864. Notice of a collection of nudibranchiate Mollusca made in India by Walter Eliot Esq., with descriptions of several new genera and species. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 5: 113-145.