Unidentified Nudibrach

Nobody has seen this before

Hi Tom - It's been seen but not described. In the recent Indo-Pacific nudi book by Gosliner, Behrens, & Valdes this is listed as Trepania sp. 5.

Interesting shot looks like there's a juvenile nestled beside the adult.

It's also in the excellent 'Reef Creature Identification- Tropical Pacific' by Humann and Deloach, listed as Trapania sp. 2

Cheers,

Jim.

More here than meets the eye. It appers that their is ons slug on top of the other. Is this sex or is one eating the other? Should this be rated X. Inquiring dirty minds want to know. This shot shows the two a little better

They are not mating, or dont appear to be. Nudis mate right side to right side with a hermaphroditic organ on the side of the head.

Think this is just 'tailing' or a form of, where one will follow the other closely until they find a specific place to mate, and lay their eggs, where they is a source of food for their young, and them selves, like a tunicate or sponge.

Olly

Incidentally, those small translucent gray blobs on stalks all over the surface of the sponge are entoprocts, small colonial animals. Other Trapania species are known to feed on entoprocts so its likely that this one is too.

Any idea why the one slug is on top f the other. My think is that it wants to be the leader not the tailgater.

Tom

It could be a coincidence since they're both feeding on the entoprocts and they do tend to be pretty oblivious to others or obstacles when feeding and travelling. I've seen photos of them crawling over scorpion fish, frogfish, wobbies, etc. On the other hand, it could be a prelude/aftermath to mating. As Greedo said, they mate right side to right side. Nudis can be sexually reproductive at small sizes so mating is a possibility.

This seems to be like tailgating since there are 3 nudis in the frame, there is a smallar nudi on the upper left of the frame.

Cheers.