Chromodoris cf. leopardus Rudman, 1987

Yonow, Nathalie, Anderson, R. Charles & Buttress, Susan G., 2002, Opisthobranch molluscs from the Chagos Archipelago, Central Indian Ocean, Journal of Natural History 36 (7), pp. 831-882 : 854-855

Chromodoris cf. leopardus Rudman, 1987

(®gures 4f, 10b, 12C, D, 13b)

Material. Chag96/34: 34 mm; outer reef Ile Takamaka, Salomon Atoll; 15 February 1996; at 9 m depth (radular prep.). Chag96/78a, b: 25 mm, 18 mm; outer reef, Middle Brother, Great Chagos Bank; 1 March 1996; at 8 m depth. Chag96/80: 20 mm; Three Brothers, Great Chagos Bank; 2 March 1996; at 5 m depth; coll. F. Stewart (no photographs).

Description. Body soft and ¯eshy with wide mantle. Ground colour cream with two large irregular chocolate brown patches: one encircled the rhinophores and the second included the gill pocket, the rim of which was white; these two patches were separated by a cream band across the mid-body, but joined by a thin isthmus of chocolate brown in two specimens (®gures 4f, 13b). Three to eight purple-black spots with white ocellations; fewest spots in smallest specimen, most in largest. Mantle edge pale purple; cream band with faint yellow patches encircling the notum

(a) (b)

(c)

(d) (e) (f)

submarginally. Rhinophores white with faint purple tips; gills white with light purple line down distal half of rachis and light purple tips to gill plumes.

The preserved specimens are violet-purple in colour, dorsally and ventrally, with orange patches and spots on the dorsum and on top of the foot, coinciding with brown pigment and purple-black spots on the photographs. The gills and rhinophore s have the same dense purple hue as the body; the rim around the gill pocket is distinctly raised in each specimen. Ventrally, the anterior portion of the foot is bilaminate and both are notched medially. The head is visible with a puckered mouth and short digitate oral tentacles (®gure 10b). When the radula was dissected