Onchidium typhae Buchannan, 1800

Sreeraj, Chemmencheri Ramakrishnan, Raghunathan, Chelladurai & Chandra, Kailash, 2021, New Distributional Records of Onchidiid Slugs from Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 121 (1), pp. 17-21 : 18

Onchidium typhae Buchannan, 1800

Material examined: M33049/9 ( Mollusca Section, ZSI, Kolkata), 2 exs, Length: 4.5 cm & 6 cm, 19.12.2018, Coll: Sreeraj CR, Chollangi, Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, East Godavari , Andhra Pradesh . ZSI/SbRC/KN3088 (Sunderban Regional Centre, ZSI)10 exs, Length: 5.3± 1.6 cm, 29.11.2019, Coll: Sreeraj CR, Chollangi, Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, East Godavari , Andhra Pradesh .

GenBank Accession Numbers: MW 459188; 450 bp; large subunit ribosomal RNA gene, partial sequence; mitochondrial; voucher ZSI-HQ-M33049/9; Sreeraj, C. R., Raghunathan, C., Deepa, J. and Karuthapandi, M. MW 459189; 450 bp; large subunit ribosomal RNA gene, partial sequence; mitochondrial; voucher ZSISbRC-KN3088; Sreeraj, C. R., Raghunathan, C., Deepa, J. and Karuthapandi, M.

Diagnostic characters: Notum raised, elongated and brownish in colour. Large conical papillae all over the notum with larger papillae on the middle of the dorsal part. The hyponotum was light greyish in colour with grey foot with greenish hue. In some individuals, the hyponotum as well as the foot is pale yellowish in colour. The width of the foot is 1/ 3 in relative width of the hyponotum. The ocular tentacles are exceptionally long in this species with reddish brown in colour and eyespot at the tip. The head is also reddish brown in colour with white speckles ( Figure 1 a-c).

Distribution: India: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, West Bengal (type locality). Elsewhere: Philippines, includingthe Strait of Malacca, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, eastern Borneo, and China (Dayrat et al., 2019).

Remarks: The animals were found to crawl in mud where it exhibits high level of cryptic behaviour and makes it almost impossible to get noticed. The individuals of the genus Onchidium can be easily identified in the field because of the presence of large, conical, pointed papillae on the dorsal notum of the undisturbed animals. Once disturbed these papillae will be contracted.