Dendrodoris nigra (Stimpson, 1855)

(Figure 23 B–D)

Material examined. Eleven specimens. MB28-004411, ZRP, 20 Apr. 2010, 1m, 20mm; MB28-00 4635, ZRP, 14 Oct. 2012, 0.5m, 32mmn; MB28-004694, 12 Jul. 2013, ZRP, 0.5m, 21mm; MHN-YT818, ZRP, 12 Jul. 2013, 0.5m, 20mm; MB28-004697, ZRP, 12 Jun. 2013, 0.5m, 15mm; MB28-0 0 4726, PACG, 15 Aug. 2013, 0.5m, 10mm; MB28-004773, VISP, 12 Nov. 2013, 5m, 6mm; MB28-004 775, VISP, 11 Dec. 2013, 4m, 20mm; MB28-004949, ZRP, 23 Dec. 2014, 0.5m, 12mm; UL-YT1554, PACG, 0 8 May 2015, 0.3m, 21mm; ZMBN10 5139, VIPP, 19 May 2015, 14mm, 15m.

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

Occurrences. Zavora, Paindane, Nuarro and Vamizi Island.

Geographic distribution. Indo-west, central Pacific. Hawaii (Kay & Young 1969), Guam (Carlson & Hoff 2003), Japan (Stimpson 1855), Australia (O’Donoghue 1924; Burn 2006), Thailand (Mehrotra & Scott 2015), India (Apte 2009), Gulf of Oman (Fatemi &Attaran-Fariman 2015), Red Sea (Debelius 1996), South Africa (Gosliner 1987) and Mozambique (Macnae & Kalk 1958).

Remarks. Preliminary molecular analysis (Deneb Ortigosa, pers. communication) suggests that this taxon is a complex of species. Three colour-morphotypes were found: (1) a black dorsum with white spots and bluish foot edge (Fig. 22 B), (2) a black dorsum with yellow submarginal spots (Fig. 22 C), (3) a reddish mantle and foot (Fig. 22 D). All specimens exhibited white-tipped rhinophores.