Pseudobiceros apricus Newman & Cannon, 1994

Dixit, Sudhanshu, Bayyana, Sharad, Manjebrayakath, Hashim, Saravanane, N. & Sudhakar, M., 2019, Polyclad fauna of Agatti Island, Lakshadweep, India: new records and description of two new species, Zootaxa 4657 (2), pp. 246-260 : 248

Pseudobiceros apricus Newman & Cannon, 1994

( Fig. 2a )

Material examined: One specimen (15 x 8 mm) preserved in 10% formalin; collected on 12.05.2018 near eastern jetty (10°52′72′′N 72°12′12′′E), Agatti Island, Lakshadweep ( Regn. No. IO /IT/POY/00001).

Description: Background colour light brown to black and translucent on the edges. Dorsum is speckled with numerous white dots and with clusters of white dots. Median area elevated and darker. Margins slightly ruffled, pseudotentacles square like with white tips. Eye cluster horseshoe shaped present in clear area (devoid of pigment) between pseudotentacles.

Remarks: Pseudobiceros apricus can be confused with congeners Pseudobiceors stellae Newman & Cannon, 1994 and Pseudobiceros bajae (Hyman, 1953) . All three species possess nearly same black background colour with white dots but differs in patterns and arrangements of dots. In Pseudobiceros stellae , dots are arranged in flower like pattern while in Pseudobiceros bajae , white dots do not form clusters. However, in the original description of Pseudobiceros apricus , the background colour was stated as light orange but morphotypes collected by same authors ( Newman and Cannon 2003) and specimens collected from Red Sea ( Velasquez et al. 2018) possess black background. This is new record for Lakshadweep archipelago.

Distribution: Lakshadweep Islands (present study), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Sreeraj et al. 2015) India; Heron Island and Queensland, Australia ( Newman and Cannon 1994, 2003); Eilat, Red Sea (Valasquez et al. 2018).

Figures

FIGURE 2. a—Pseudobiceros apricus; b—Pseudobiceros hymanae; c—Pseudoceros bolool; d—Pseudoceros bicolor (exsitu).