Nudi id

This is from Bali, in front of Scuba Seraya.

It's a pretty small thing, maybe 5mm/.25in long.

Found at about 14m/45ft depth.

link to larger image.

link to larger image.

Blown up detail from above image:

link to larger image.

Phyllodesmium macphersonae

Phyllodesmium macphersonae

Not to argue, but based upon what?

I can't really find any evidence of brown patchy zooxanthella usually found in that species.

I was thinking Cuthona or Spurilla.

Good point, but the zooxanthella aren't always present.

http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall.cfm?base=phylmacp

Did you consider Cuthona catachroma?

Did you consider Cuthona catachroma?

I too have Neville's book, but cannot find anything referring to this species on any of the sites that deal with Indo Pacific species. Perhaps it's an invalid name. I think it probably is a Cuthona, and it has similarities to two other species from different locales:

C. speciosa

C. ornata

Perhaps it's a colour form of C. ornata.

Try sending it to Bill Rudman at The Sea Slug forum. Bali seems to have a lot of unknown Cuthonas... I found one that's never been figured out, so good luck!

Cheers,

Marli

Hi Marli, those are certainly possibilities. The body color is at least correct, but they would be pretty far from their known (though limited) range.

I mailed Bill last week but haven't heard back yet. I hope it's just a matter of him being backed up or that it's stumped him that he hasn't posted my message yet.

I would guess Bill's backed up. For the record, I would also go more towards Cuthona, Spurilla, or another genus. Just not Phyllodesmium (sorry Jim).