Hypselodoris infucata ( Rueppell & Leuckart, 1830)

Nithyanandan, Manickam, Al-Kandari, Manal & Mantha, Gopikrishna, 2021, New records of nudibranchs and a cephalaspid from Kuwait, northwestern Arabian Gulf (Mollusca, Heterobranchia), ZooKeys 1048, pp. 91-107 : 91

Hypselodoris infucata ( Rueppell & Leuckart, 1830)

Figure 6A, B

Doris infucata Rüppell & Leuckart, 1828-1830: tab X, 34, fig. 3 (northern African Red Sea).

Photographic record.

SAASC, Al Khiran, 2 July 2013, two individuals photographed at 3 m depth on a rock culvert, R. Dinesh Kumar.

Description.

The two individuals in the photographs have a slender white body with blue, yellow, and black spots scattered all over. At the mantle margin, triangular dark blue-green and pale blue patches alternate (Fig. 6A ), and bright yellow spots are scattered on both the dorsum and foot. The rhinophores are bright orange-red and the core is white. The oral tentacles are bright orange-red at the midrib and tip (Fig. 6A ). A row of prominent dark blue blotches occurs on the either side at the edge of dorsum.

Distribution.

Indo-West Pacific species and a Lessepsian migrant ( Rudman 1977; Yonow 2008), Oman, South Africa, Philippines, Australia ( Debelius 1996), Madagascar, Bali, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Hawaii ( Johnson and Valdés 2001; Gosliner et al. 2008), Gulf of Kutch and Lakshadweep, India ( Apte 2009; Apte et al. 2010), Larak and Lavan islands, Iran ( Rezai et al. 2016), Mozambique ( Tibiriçá et al. 2017), Pakistan (Gul, 2019), Thailand ( Mehrotra et al. 2021), and Kuwait (this study).

Remarks.

This species exhibits a high degree of variability in colour pattern and the bright yellow spots observed in the individual during the present study was similar to a specimen recorded from Eilat, northern Red Sea ( Ben Tov 2003). A second colour morph (Fig. 6B ) was also recorded with triangular blue grey patches on the either side of the dorsum as illustrated in Yonow (2008). Hypselodoris infucata can be easily confused with H. kanga Rudman, 1977 due to morphological similarities ( Rudman 2007; Mehrotra et al. 2021). In H. infucata the gills are rather simple with a bright red line on the outer and inner edges, whereas in H. kanga , they are triangular with three lines and, distinctively, with white or yellow spots in-between ( Rudman 2007). Bluish purple lines usually occur in the dorsum of H. kanga ( Mehrotra et al. 2021); however, individuals observed in this study only have dark blue or black spots. Hypselodoris infucata differs externally from another congener, H. roo Gosliner & Johnson in Epstein et al. 2018, in not having a white spot at the base of the rhinophores on the posterior side and a broad posterior portion of the notum ( Epstein et al. 2018). A new record to Kuwait.

Figures

Figure 6. A Hypselodoris infucata (Rueppell & Leuckart, 1830) B colour morph. Arrows indicate alternate dark blue-green and pale blue triangles, a diagnostic feature of this species. Photograph R. Diniesh Kumar.