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Sclerodoris tuberculata Eliot, 1904
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Click the thumbnail photos to enhance!
Sclerodoris tuberculata is characterized by the excavation or 'pit' in
the dorsal midline, which mimics a sponge oscule. It has many colour forms: bright red, orange,
greenish-grey or dull brown. Whitish marks on many specimens look like patches of sand
caught in the mucous sheet often exuded by sponges to clean sediment off.
The mantle is thrown into a reticulate pattern of ridges which are raised at their junctions into
large hard conical tubercles. There is a wide central hump which is more heavily
tuberculated and ridged than the margin.
Many undescribed species of the genus Aldisa look pretty similar,
also with 2 or 3 'pits'.
The highly variable Aldisa sp. 02 looks extremely silimar,
I don't know how to distinguish them, I think they are one species...
More informations on Sclerodoris tuberculata are at
Bill Rudman's Sea-Slug Forum! |
