Selection: Trinchesia yamasui

Trinchesia yamasui (Hamatani, 1993) [Cuthona]

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The aeolid Trinchesia yamasui seems to be quite variable in colour, in particular, the head, rhinophores and oral tentacles appear to range in colour from a translucent orange to a dark translucent blue-black. The second point of variation concerns the areas with opaque white pigementation. In some animals the translucent body wall has scattered patches of opaque white while in other specimens there is a solid colouring of white.
Though it is almost aways found on its prey, the stinging hydroid Aglaophenia cupressina here are 2 specimens mating on the sand, this picture shows 2 specimens with the egg mass on the sand. I have in my files several pictures of its egg masses, always looking like this one, and deposited on the sand.
Originally posted at these websites as Cuthona yamasui Hamatani, 1993 I follow:
Miller, M.C. 2005. An appraisal of the identity of the New Zealand species of the aeolid nudibranch family Tergipedidae (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia). Journal of Natural History 38: 1183-1192.
let me quote from the last sentence of the abstract:
"As a result the genus Cuthona Alder & Hancock, 1855 is restricted to one species, C. nana (Alder & Hancock, 1842), and the genus Trinchesia von Ihering, 1879 is re-introduced for the rest of the species previously included in Cuthona."
More informations on Trinchesia yamasui as Cuthona yamasui are at Bill Rudman's Sea-Slug Forum!