Chelidonura electra Rudman, 1970

Yonow, Nathalie, 2012, Opisthobranchs from the western Indian Ocean, with descriptions of two new species and ten new records (Mollusca, Gastropoda), ZooKeys 197, pp. 1-130 : 4

Chelidonura electra Rudman, 1970 Plate 2

Chelidonura electra Rudman, 1970: 8, figs. 3-7 (Solomon Islands); Marshall & Willan 1999:18, fig. E (Great Barrier Reef); Gosliner et al. 2008: 44 (Tanzania and Madagascar + W Pacific); Apte 2009: 165, fig. 1d (Laccadive Islands); Richmond 2011: 276 (East Africa).

Material.

Maldives: 29 mm length (10 mm pres., MDV/AB/96/1), Guraidhoo Channel, South Malé Atoll, 16 m depth, 30 April 1996, leg. RC Anderson & SG Buttress. - Zanzibar: two pres. specimens 15 mm × 2 mm and 19 mm × 9 mm, Bawe Island, underside of Porites head with encrusting Tubastrea and sponges, 7 m depth, June 1995, leg. MD Richmond. - Madagascar: 50 mm × 10 mm (PK-C), Ampangorina, Nosy Komba, on algal-encrusted coral, 3 m depth, 30 January 1992, leg. P Kemp. - Mayotte: photographs of two individuals, 15 mm and 25 mm http://seaslugs.free.fr/nudibranche/a_intro.htm.

Description.

These specimens and photographs are among the first records of Chelidonura electra from the Indian Ocean. Chelidonura electra is distinguished by its white body and yellow edges to the parapodia and tails. There are no similar specimens in the Indian Ocean: Chelidonura pallida Risbec is found in the western Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean only; it has not been recorded from the western Indian Ocean. Also white, it has a black line along the edges, followed by an inner orange-yellow band. Gosliner (1980) suggested that Chelidonura electr a might be a colour form of Chelidonura pallida , arguing that colour can be variable in a single species but in his recent book ( Gosliner et al. 2008) they are treated as separate species, and their different distributions are acknowledged. They are also treated as different species with different reproductive strategies in Anthes and Michiels (2007). Chelidonura amoena Bergh is also found in the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific: it is also a large species, translucent white with diffuse yellow margins to the head and tail and dark brown to black speckled pigmentation on the dorsum and parapodia, the latter having yellow anterior and posterior corners (pers. obs., Willan and Cattaneo-Vietti 1995).