Aethedoris indica Abraham, 1877

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 : 731

Aethedoris indica Abraham, 1877 (Fig. 26P)

Description notes Brief description based on a colorful illustration: wide mantle; large, bilobed oral tentacles with crenate edges; notum mottled, red.

Own conclusion/opinion on its taxonomic status Abraham (1877) only examined a figure published in Alder and Hancock (1864) as an undescribed species, which got his attention because of the “expansion of the bilobed head” (page 237). Alder and Hancock (1864) included in their publication illustrations made by native Hindu artists during an expedition led by Eliot from 1853 to 1854 to Waltair, India. Regrettably, no text description was provided, and specimens were not collected. Since the illustration (with a certain artistic license) shows a mottled notum and undulating lateral band, we suggest that this species is likely a junior synonym of H. lacer (instead of H. sanguineus ).