Phyllidiopsis cardinalis Bergh, 1875

Yonow, Nathalie, Anderson, R. Charles & Buttress, Susan G., 2002, Opisthobranch molluscs from the Chagos Archipelago, Central Indian Ocean, Journal of Natural History 36 (7), pp. 831-882 : 869

Phyllidiopsis cardinalis Bergh, 1875

(®gure 19b)

Phyllidiopsis cardinalis Bergh : Eliot, 1904c: 284; Gosliner and Behrens, 1988: 308, ®gures 1B, 3; Brunckhorst, 1993: 63, numerous ®gures.

Phyllidia tuberculata Risbec, 1928: 59 , ®gure 3, pl. 1, ®gure 2; 1953: 12.

Material. Chag96/75: 383 16 mm; Three Brothers, Great Chagos Bank; 29 February 1996; at 20 m depth. Chag96/81: live length not recorded; curled, approx. 25 mm preserved; Three Brothers, Great Chagos Bank; 2 March 1996; at 22 m depth.

Description. Dorsal surface with numerous large complex tubercles and smaller simple ones. Colour mottled cream, brown and yellow in specimen 96/75 (®gure 19b), red-brown in specimen 96/81. Mantle margin cream or yellow with black or dark green spots. Yellow anal papilla. Ventral surface of foot deep yellow with irregular brown spots around periphery. Rhinophores short, pale yellow with green tips.

The preserved animals retain the three rows (not two as in Brunckhorst, 1993) of multicompound tubercles. Both specimens are uniformly very dark, a reddish black; the formaldehyde is tinted pink.

Geographic distribution. Indo-West Paci®c. Phyllidiopsis cardinalis is well known from the Paci®c but has been rarely recorded from the Indian Ocean: Eliot (1904c) recorded four specimens from Zanzibar; Gosliner and Behrens (1988) had one specimen from Aldabra, and Brunckhorst (1993) had two specimens from Western Australia and three from ReÂunion. N. Y. has photographs of one individual from