Baeolidia palythoae Gosliner, 1985

Carmona, Leila, Pola, Marta, Gosliner, Terrence M. & Cervera, Juan Lucas, 2014, Review of Baeolidia, the largest genus of Aeolidiidae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia), with the description of five new species, Zootaxa 3802 (4), pp. 477-514 : 494

Baeolidia palythoae Gosliner, 1985

( Fig. 8 F)

Baeolidia palythoae Gosliner, 1985 , 237, Figs. 4–10 .

Type locality. Umgazana, South Africa.

Type material. The holotype is deposited in the South African Museum, Cape Town (SAM-A35640).

Geographical distribution. To date, only known from South Africa ( Gosliner 1985).

External and internal morphology. Described in detail and figured by Gosliner (1985). No specimens available for the present study.

Remarks. Baeolidia palythoae was originally described from South Africa by Gosliner (1985). So far, the only available information about this species is the original description. Gosliner (1985) provided a complete description of this species and figured the rhinophores, the ventral and lateral view of the species, the cerata, the oral glands, the jaws, the central nervous and the reproductive system. This author also presented scanning electron micrographs of the jaws and their masticatory border as well as the radular teeth. The most distinctive features of this species are the second pair of oral glands, which are ovoid in shape and empty on the ventral side of the head, as well as the small tubercles on the masticatory border. B. palythoae closely resembles B. harrietae in external appearance but both species differ in several features such as the number of cerata per row (4–9 in B. harrietae and 3–5 in B. paylothoae ), the position of the gonopore, the number of oral glands and the ornamentation of the masticatory border ( Gosliner 1985).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Scanning electron photographs. (A – B) Baeolidia moebii (CASIZ 180327): (A) Detailed view of the masticatory border; (B) Radular teeth; (C – D) Baeolidia macleayi (CASIZ 195247): (C) Detailed view of the masticatory border; (D) Radular teeth; (E – F) Baeolidia japonica (CASIZ 181357); (E) Detailed view of the masticatory border; (F) Radular teeth. Scale bars: A, 10 µm; B, 30 µm; C-D, 10 µm; E, 100 µm; F, 150 µm.

FIGURE 8. Photographs of the living animals. (A) Baeolidia harrietae, specimen from Papua New Guinea, photo by Terrence M. Gosliner; (B) Baeolidia australis, specimen from Australia, photo by Lean and David Atkinson; (C) Baeolidia salaamica, specimen from the Philippines, photo by Terrence M. Gosliner, CASIZ 177599; (D) Baeolidia salaamica, specimen from the Philippines, photo by Terrence M. Gosliner, CASIZ 177397; (E) Baeolidia chaka, specimen from South Africa (6 mm), photo by Terrence M. Gosliner; (F) Baeolidia palythoae, specimen from South Africa (8 mm), photo by Terrence M. Gosliner.