Chromodoris annulata Eliot, 1904

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 : 26

Chromodoris annulata Eliot, 1904 Plates 34, 35

Chromodoris annulata Eliot, 1904a: 389, pl. 24, figs. 1-3 (Zanzibar); Edmunds 1971: 371, fig. 15 (Tanzania); Rudman 1973a: 189, pl. 1A (Zanzibar); Gosliner 1987: 74, fig. 106 (South Africa); Yonow 1989: 293, pl. 2 (Red Sea); Debelius and Kuiter 2007: 145 (Oman and South Africa); Richmond 2011: 280 (East Africa).

Material.

Persian Gulf: photograph of one individual, Dahwat ad Daffi, Jubail, Saudi Arabia, April 1992, F Krupp; photographs of numerous individuals, 2000-2011, GT Smith; photos of several individuals, Qaruh Island, Kuwait, 2008-2011, M Nithyandanan. - Gulf of Oman: photos of two individuals, Muscat, Oman, 01-12 April 2009, S Kahlbrock; photographs of one individual less than 10 mm, Inchcape 2 (a ship wreck), 20 m depth, 08 January 2010, GT Smith; two individuals, approx. 15 mm, Sharm Rock, 09 January 2010, GT Smith. - Mayotte and La Réunion: photographs of numerous individuals http://seaslugs.free.fr/nudibranche/a_intro.htm.

Description.

Easily recognised, not to be confused with any other species found in the western Indian Ocean and Red Sea. Large and fleshy with raised, medium-sized bright orange pustules, deep purple rings around rhinophores and gills joined by broken line in the Dahwat ad Daffi individual and the majority of photographs of individuals from the Persian Gulf (Plate 34). In the Gulf, the purple rings are not perfect as in the Red Sea, presenting with gaps, dots, dashes, and extra markings (Plate 35). Mantle margin is of the same purple pigment, foot without purple margin but does have few orange spots on its upper surface; rhinophores and gills purple.

Distribution.

Chromodoris annulata is known from the Red Sea ( Yonow 2008) and the east African coastline to South Africa, and is recorded from the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, La Réunion, and Mayotte for the first time.