Hexabranchus tinkeri Ovstergaard, 1955

Tibiriçá, Yara, Pola, Marta, Pittman, Cory, Gosliner, Terrence M., Malaquias, Manuel A. & Cervera, Juan Lucas, 2023, A Spanish dancer? No! A troupe of dancers: a review of the family Hexabranchidae Bergh, 1891 (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia, Nudibranchia), Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 23 (4), pp. 697-742 : 734

Hexabranchus tinkeri Ovstergaard, 1955 (Fig. 26W)

Description notes Description based on several specimens: up to 230 mm in length; notum mottled in bluish white, reddish, and yellowish; a light bluish area and carmine spots surround the central region of the notum; six to eight large gills; expansion of the lateral mantle similar in color to the notum except for a sub-marginal red band and marginal pale carmine band; rhinophore sheaths low, white; oral tentacles scalloped.

Own conclusion/opinion on its taxonomic status Ostergaard (1955) mentioned that he found little variation except in three specimens collected later in which the lateral mantle expansion was wider with a deep carmine submarginal band. He distinguished this species from H. sandwichensis by its coloration and gill arrangement. Ostergaard (1955) believed that H. sandwichensis was a rare species because in 30 years he did not find any animals like it. Furthermore, the author distinguished this species from H. cardinalis by the bilobed oral tentacles. Our analysis reveals that this species is, in fact, the adult form of H. sandwichensis .