Chromodoris cf. mandapamensis Valdes , Mollo & Ortea, 1999

Mehrotra, Rahul, A. Caballer Gutierrez, Manuel, M. Scott, Chad, Arnold, Spencer, Monchanin, Coline, Viyakarn, Voranop & Chavanich, Suchana, 2021, An updated inventory of sea slugs from Koh Tao, Thailand, with notes on their ecology and a dramatic biodiversity increase for Thai waters, ZooKeys 1042, pp. 73-188 : 73

publication ID

https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1042.64474

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9CF986D8-6A47-4E17-9A67-245C78FB8AFD

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A3EDECF2-D08B-5525-AC1D-CD9D53EF9DD8

treatment provided by

ZooKeys by Pensoft

scientific name

Chromodoris cf. mandapamensis Valdes , Mollo & Ortea, 1999
status

 

* Chromodoris cf. mandapamensis Valdes, Mollo & Ortea, 1999 View in CoL Figure 9F View Figure 9

Material examined.

Three specimens 5-10 mm, CB.

Ecology.

Among reef rubble, in particular under dead fungiid coral skeletons, in shallow coral reef areas. Depth 2-8 m.

Distribution.

Goniobranchus pruna (Gosliner, 1994) is known from Madagascar and South Africa ( Gosliner 1994) and Mozambique ( Tibiriçá et al. 2017). Chromodoris sp. 15 is known from Philippines and New Caledonia ( Gosliner et al. 2018).

Remarks.

Very similar to Chromodoris aff. mandapamensis ( Layton et al. 2018; Bonomo and Gosliner 2020), Chromodoris sp. 15 ( Gosliner et al. 2018), and Goniobranchus pruna ( Gosliner 1994). While C. mandapamensis has been suggested as a possible synonym of G. pruna as discussed in Tibiriçá et al. (2017), the present species is kept separate from C. mandapamensis due to difference in the local ecology of both species. Chromodoris mandapamensis is locally recorded only from sparse observations at offshore pinnacles, with no confirmed records for the past five years, whereas C. cf. mandapamensis is regularly found in surveys in shallow reef areas near the shore. While it is possible that this species undergoes its juvenile stages closer to shore before moving out towards the offshore pinnacles, no observations have been made of this species in the intervening deeper soft sediment habitats between the two. Additionally, no individuals larger than approximately 15 mm have been recorded and no individuals that externally match C. mandapamensis have yet been recorded near the island.