Nembrotha guttata Yonow, 1994

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 : 18

Nembrotha guttata Yonow, 1994 Plate 21

Nembrotha guttata Yonow, 1994a: 108, figs. 2F, 6E, 8C (Maldives).

Material.

Maldives, two specimens, both 35 mm (MDV/AB/96/4), Fulidhoo Channel, Felidhoo Atoll, 9 m depth, 02 May 1996, leg. RC Anderson & SG Buttress; 32 mm (MDV/AB/96/14), Fulidhoo Channel, Felidhoo Atoll, 07 May 1996, leg. RC Anderson & SG Buttress; photo of individual, Maaya Tila, Ari Atoll, 6-8 m depth, March 1994, H Voigtmann.

Description.

Easily recognised by velvety black body, large orange pustules edged with green especially along frontal margin, black and orange rhinophores, and green gills. The differences between Nembrotha guttata and Nembrotha cristata Bergh are clearly visible in Plate 21. Nembrotha cristata has been previously recorded from the Indian Ocean, but only in the Maldives (Yonow 1994). A third black and pustulose species known from the region is Nembrotha kubaryana , recorded from Mauritius ( Yonow and Hayward 1991): it has green pustules but orange gills and rhinophores.

Distribution.

Nembrotha guttata appears to be endemic to the Maldive islands; paler and consistently differently coloured species are recorded from the Philippines ( Pola et al. 2008), Indonesia, Australia, Japan ( Gosliner et al. 2008) and New Caledonia ( Hervé 2010) but need further investigation. Colour patterns appear to be the best physical characters differentiating species of Nembrotha , and the brownish-red spotted pattern with white gills and white pigment between and on the rhinophores currently included in Nembrotha guttata is consistent in pattern and colour; it occurs only in the western Pacific Ocean and is most probably a distinct species.