Phyllidiopsis gemmata (Pruvot-Fol, 1957)

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 : 56-57

Phyllidiopsis gemmata (Pruvot-Fol, 1957) Fig. 25, Plate 74

Phyllidia gemmata Pruvot-Fol, 1957: 121, figs. 50-53, pl. 1 figs. v, vi (no locality, NHMUK).

Phyllidiopsis gemmata . - Brunckhorst 1993: 65, pl. 7H (La Réunion and Thailand).

Material.

Maldives: 33 × 15 mm pres. (NY-35), Maayafushi Tila, Ari Atoll, 23 m depth, 14 May 1990, leg. N Yonow ("white with 4 black lines, sole pale grey/white, foot extends beyond margin, has black line dorsally"); photographs of one individual, Maayafushi, South Malé Atoll, March 1997, J Hinterkircher.

Description.

Living specimen very white and grey with two longitudinal black lines on each side of centre; each pair meets in front of its respective rhinophore. Outer black lines additionally meet posteriorly beyond anus and extend to mantle margin. Tubercles small and simple, although they may occur in clusters along tuberculate lines. Anus located on a tubercle, and was extended in life. Sole pale grey to white but top of foot with black line.

In preservative, specimen is distinctive: relaxed, with a very broad but thin mantle skirt. Central tubercles bead-like, arranged in three longitudinal lines; median one several tubercles wide. Skirt has scattered tubercles arranged neither in groups nor in lines. Anterior margin of foot narrow with thickened edge. Head distinctive, forming a “funnel” below broad fused oral tentacles, difficult to see in Fig. 25 (but similar to Phyllidiella zeylanica ); gills and head white in preserved material.

Remarks.

There appear to be very few records of this species in the literature: the species identified as Phyllidia cf. gemmata by Lin (1983), although listed as such by Brunckhorst (1993), does not appear to be a species of Phyllidiopsis : the oral tentacles are the shape of those of species belonging to the genera Phyllidia and Phyllidiella , separated and long; the shape of the oral tentacles and the three dorsal ridges are more characteristic of Phyllidia varicosa or Phyllidia alyta although there is apparently no black line on the sole of the foot. Larger specimens of Phyllidia gemmata have perpendicular short black lines on the skirt ( Pruvot-Fol 1957, Brunckhorst 1993, http://seaslugs.free.fr/nudibranche/a_intro.htm).