Chromodoris conchyliata Yonow, 1984

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 : 30

Chromodoris conchyliata Yonow, 1984 Plates 3940

Chromodoris cf. geometrica Risbec. - Rudman 1973a: 187, pl. 1B, figs. 7A, B (Kenya).

Chromodoris conchyliata Yonow, 1984: 216, fig. 2 (Sri Lanka); Debelius and Kuiter 2007: 148 (South Africa and Thailand).

Chromodoris geometrica Risbec. - Gosliner 1987: 76, fig. 111 (South Africa) (non Chromodoris geometrica Risbec).

Material.

Seychelles: 20 × 7 mm (PK-Z), 5 m depth under rock, off Ade’s house, Lilôt, NW Mahé, 10 April 1992, leg. P Kemp (specimen retains orange gills and rhinophores, examined 2009) and photos of one larger individual, P Kemp. - La Réunion and Mayotte: photographs of numerous individuals http://seaslugs.free.fr/nudibranche/a_intro.htm.

Remarks.

It is exciting to be recording this species once more; there is one other published record from South Africa as Chromodoris geometrica ( Gosliner 1987), and many photographs from La Réunion and Mayotte (http://seaslugs.free.fr/nudibranche/a_intro.htm), where it has been observed growing to 40 mm and spawning. This species displays ontogenetic changes: larger specimens are very irregularly pustulose, and the symmetrical violet markings around the large, regularly distributed, creamy yellow pustules of the juveniles (Plate 39) are sometimes reduced to just short dashes on each side in the large animals (Plate 40). In the larger specimens, the anterior ventral violet crescent of the smaller animals becomes a fiery orange-red (Plate 40). Most internet records are from the western Indian Ocean; a couple of photographs from west Thailand need confirmation ( NudiPixel and Sea Slug Forum).