Goniobranchus sp. 2

Nithyanandan, Manickam, Al-Kandari, Manal & Mantha, Gopikrishna, 2021, New records of nudibranchs and a cephalaspid from Kuwait, northwestern Arabian Gulf (Mollusca, Heterobranchia), ZooKeys 1048, pp. 91-107 : 91

Goniobranchus sp. 2

Figure 5

Photographic record.

Failaka Island, 22 December 2014, one individual found in rocks in sandy mud intertidal areas at the lowest tide mark, Dr. Valeriy Skryabin.

Description.

The individual has a white translucent body with dark red / purple spots scattered over the dorsum; a few of the dark red / purple spots have a tubercle-like projection in the middle giving a conical impression (Fig. 5 , arrowed). A scattered row of spots extends around the margin of the mantle and the foot. Rhinophores are translucent with white lamellae. Gills are also translucent with a white midrib. The edge of the mantle has a submarginal bright yellow band and an interior ring of opaque white glands.

Distribution.

Kuwait (this study).

Remarks.

The individual recorded has a submarginal ring of translucent white glands just inside the prominent bright orange band similar to G. tumuliferus (Collingwood, 1881; see also Gosliner et al. 2015: 229). However, in G. tumuliferus the rhinophores and tentacles have opaque white tips ( Gosliner et al. 2015; Mehrotra et al. 2021), which was not observed in the individual recorded during this study. The translucent white glands with dark red / purple spots interrupting the bright orange band is a character combination of what has been observed in Goniobranchus kitae Gosliner, 1994 from Madagascar and G. bimaensis (Bergh, 1905) from the Indo-West Pacific. Probably an undescribed species.

Figures

Figure 5. Goniobranchus sp. 2 (arrows indicate tubercle-like projections in the dark red / purple spots which give the impression of a conical projection). Photograph Dr. Valeriy Skryabin. Scale bar: 1 mm.