Glossodoris undaurum Rudman, 1985

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 : 35

Glossodoris undaurum Rudman, 1985 Plate 49

Glossodoris undaurum Rudman, 1985: 248, figs. 1C, 3B, 5 (SW Australia).

Glossodoris undarum . - Debelius & Kuiter 2007: 189 (South Africa and W Australia); Gosliner et al. 2008: 239 (South Africa, Oman, W Australia) (all misspellings).

Material.

Sri Lanka: 13 × 5 mm pres., Unawatuna, S of Galle, 27 December 2010, leg. and photos S Kahlbrock.

Description.

This description of the live animal is based on many photographs of the specimen: dorsum broad with narrow mantle overlap; skirt thick with single pair of permanent undulations. Dorsum grey to off-white with irregularly shaped white, slightly raised pustules. Mantle skirt whiter than dorsum with only a few small white pustules; margin lemon-yellow. Rhinophores very small: distal half translucent lemon-yellow, proximal half paler translucent yellow, posteriorly an opaque line brighter yellow towards the tip. Simply pinnate gills translucent white with opaque white line on each side of rachis, red tips, and short red line running down from tips.

The preserved specimen is semi-translucent grey with irregular opaque white spots, slight crumpling of mantle around each. Mantle skirt with thickened margin, no coloured or thickened margin on skirt or foot. Long rhinophores translucent grey with white line and white tip, lamellae indistinct. Gills retracted but the red ends visible though translucent skin and open pocket.

Distribution.

This is the first record in the scientific literature of Glossodoris undaurum from the western Indian Ocean. There are book and internet records from South Africa, Kenya, Oman, and La Réunion. There are several named and un-named species occurring in the Indian Ocean, but these differ externally in the combination of margin, rhinophore, and gill colouration: collection of specimens will enable comparisons. It may be that some are colour variations but this cannot be established at present.