Pleurobranchus forskalii Rüppel & Leuckart, 1828

Tibiriçá, Yara, Pola, Marta & Cervera, Juan Lucas, 2017, Astonishing diversity revealed: an annotated and illustrated inventory of Nudipleura (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) from Mozambique, Zootaxa 4359 (1), pp. 1-133 : 12

Pleurobranchus forskalii Rüppel & Leuckart, 1828

( Figure 2 H–I )

Material examined. Four specimens. MB28-004434, ZRP, 10 Dec. 2011, 1m, 35mm; MHN-YT596, BL, 12 Oct. 2012, 2m, 120mm; MB28-004904, MIF, 11 Jun. 2016, 3m, 88mm; MHN-YT1655, NHR, 23 Oct. 2016, 8m, 200mm (crawling on sand).

Habitats. Subtropical tidal reefs, rocky reefs and seagrass and tropical coral bommies and seagrass.

Occurrences. Zavora, Barra, Mozambique Island and Nuarro.

Geographic distribution. Indo-west Pacific. Japan, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines (Gosliner et al. 2008; Goodheart et al. 2015), Gulf of Oman ( Fatemi & Attaran-Fariman 2015), Thailand ( Mehrota & Scott 2015), Red Sea, Tanzania (Gosliner et al. 2008; Goodheart et al. 2015) and Mozambique.

Remarks. Goodheart et al. (2015) reviewed the genus Pleurobranchus based on molecular and morphology and observed that colour variation in this species is related to the ontogeny, where juveniles are lighter in colour than adults. Small specimens from Mozambique show complex colouration with several hues of brown mixed with small amounts of grey and white. The large and small tubercles often have a reddish dot at the top. A dark brown ring subtended by a whitish semi ring surrounds each large compound tubercle ( Fig. 2 G ). The base of the foot is translucent light-brown spotted with dark-brown, irregular marks. The larger specimen had a dark-purple mantle with partly open white rings surrounding each cluster of tubercles ( Fig. 2 H ). In this morphotype, the base of the foot is the same colour as the rest of the mantle.

Figures

FIGURE 2. A, Berthella martensi (MB28-004607). B–D, Berthellina delicata species complex (MB28-005057, MB28- 004578, MB28-005060, respectively). E, Berthellina sp. (MB28-005016). F, Pleurobranchaea brockii (in situ). G, Pleurobranchus albiguttatus (MB28-004603). H–I, Pleurobranchus forskalii (MB28-004434 and MHN-YT1655, respectively). J, Pleurobranchus grandis (in situ). K–L, Pleurobranchus peronii (MHN-YT276 and MB28-005042, respectively).