Gymnodoris sp.

Souza-Canal, Jade De & Valdés, Ángel, 2025, The genus Gymnodoris Stimpson, 1855 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia) in New Caledonia, with descriptions of eleven new species, Zootaxa 5710 (1), pp. 1-73 : 50

Gymnodoris sp. 11

( Figs. 10L–P )

Material examined. New Caledonia: North Province: Koumac, Barrière Piscine ( 20°34.7'S, 164°06'E) [Koumac 2.1 Expedition, stn. KR217, interior of the pool], 16 Sep 2018, 1 specimen 4 mm preserved length (MNHN-IM-2019-26400, isolate JD42) . New Caledonia: North Province: Koumac ( 20°38.4'S, 164°16.5'E), 18 m depth [Koumac 2.3 Expedition, stn. KR1067], 22 Nov 2019, 1 specimen 9 mm preserved length (MNHN-IM-2019- 26397, isolate JD56); 1 specimen 14 mm preserved length (MNHN-IM-2019-26398, isolate JD22); 1 specimen 12 mm preserved length (MNHN-IM-2019-26399, isolate JD25) . New Caledonia: South Province: Nouméa, Passe de Boulari ( 22°28.9'S, 166°26.6'E), 10 m depth, 16 Jan 2022, 1 specimen 6 mm preserved length [wreck of La Dieppoise] (MNHN-IM-2019-26519, isolate JD146), leg. A. Doulas.

Description. Body oval to elongate, with several large, low, conical tubercles ( Figs. 10L–P ). Velum, notal rim differentiated, velum with single frontal tubercle. Posterior end of foot broad, tapering into blunt “tail.” Color translucent white, with yellow tubercles, some with red tips. Internal organs visible as black and opaque white structures. Rhinophores bulbous, with 8–10 lamellae, rhinophores white with reddish-brown lamellae, tips. Gill with 8 large, broad, tripinnate leaves, opaque white, main rachises orange-red. Foot wider than notum, translucent white, with some orange spots, broad anterior lateral projections. Oral tentacles large, blunt.

Phylogenetic position. Gymnodoris sp. 11 is sister to Gymnodoris ceylonica (PP: 1, MLB: 100) but the relationships of this clade within the larger phylogeny of Gymnodoris remains poorly supported ( Fig. 1A ).

Remarks. Knutson & Gosliner (2022) studied specimens from the Marshall Islands, Okinawa, and Papua New Guinea. Gosliner et al. (2018) reported it from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia as Gymnodoris sp. 11 and Nakano (2018) from Japan as Gymnodoris sp. 8 .

Figures

FIGURE 1. A. Bayesian consensus phylogenetic tree of the concatenated dataset including PP above branches and MLB below branches. Branches fully supported (PP: 1, MLB: 100) marked with asterisks. New species described in this paper highlighted in red font and illustrated; other species reported from New Caledonia in this study highlighted in blue font. Clades are collapsed according to the results of the ASAP and bPTP species delimitation analyses. B. Histogram representing the distance plot from the ASAP analysis using the COI gene showing pairwise p-distances (Kimura 2 model) among candidate species. The dashed line represents the distance threshold provided by the lowest ASAP score for species delimitation.

FIGURE 10. Gymnodoris sp.3 andGymnodoris sp.11, photographs of live animalsshowing color variation.A. G.sp. 3, specimen from Koumac, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM-2019-26471, isolate JD76). B. G. sp. 3, specimen from Koumac, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM-2019-26470, isolate JD82). C. G. sp. 3, specimen from Poum, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM-2019-26472, isolate JD106). D. G. sp. 3, specimen from New Caledonia: Loyalty Is.: Ouvéa, (MNHN-IM-2019-26473, isolate JD176). E. G. sp. 3, specimen from New Caledonia: Loyalty Is.: Ouvéa, (MNHN-IM-2019-264527, isolate JD164). F. G. sp. 3, specimen from New Caledonia: Loyalty Is.: Ouvéa, (MNHN-IM-2019-26474, isolate JD159). G. G. sp. 3, specimen from New Caledonia: Loyalty Is.: Ouvéa, (MNHN-IM-2019-26475, isolate JD174). H. G. sp. 3, specimen from New Caledonia: Loyalty Is.: Ouvéa, (MNHN- IM-2019-26478, isolate JD186). I. G. sp. 3, specimen from New Caledonia: Loyalty Is.: Ouvéa, (MNHN-IM-2019-26476, isolate JD172). J. G. sp. 3, specimen from New Caledonia: Loyalty Is.: Ouvéa, (MNHN-IM-2019-26503, isolate JD154). K. G. sp. 3, specimen from Koumac, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM-2019-26460, isolate JD84). L. G. sp. 11, specimen from Koumac, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM-2019-26399, isolate JD25). M. G. sp. 11, specimen from Koumac, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM- 2019-26397, isolate JD56). N. G. sp. 11, specimen from Koumac, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM-2019-26400, isolate JD42). O. G. sp. 11, specimen from Nouméa, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM-2019-26519, isolate JD146), photo A. Doulas. P. G. sp. 11, specimen from Koumac, New Caledonia (MNHN-IM-2019-26398, isolate JD22).