#noumea haliclona

[briery]

Nudibranchs, tiny "butterflies of the sea"

1) Noumea haliclona 2) Trinchesia sororum 3) Flabellina sp. #4 4) Placida sp. #1 5) Sagaminopteron ornatum

[bitch-dont-krill-my-vibe]

Nudibranch: Goniobranchus splendidus

G. splendidus grows up to 4 cm and is found across the east coast of Australia. A recent study which looked at how fish recognise toxic prey found that fish predators learn to avoid the yellow rim (which is a consistent colour feature) and pay little attention to the red spots (which are variable).

Figure 1: Variations in the red spot pattern of Goniobranchus splendidus (A-D), and similar species Noumea haliclona (E) and Chromodoris hunteri (F).  Figure from Rudman, 1983.

References: 

Rudman, W.B., 1983. The Chromodorididae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Indo-West Pacific: Chromodoris splendida, C. aspersa and Hypselodoris placida colour groups. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 78(2), pp.105-173.

Winters, A.E., Green, N.F., Wilson, N.G., How, M.J., Garson, M.J., Marshall, N.J. and Cheney, K.L., 2017. Stabilizing selection on individual pattern elements of aposematic signals. Proc. R. Soc. B, 284(1861), p.20170926.

Photos:

1) Photo taken by Loren Mariani for the Gold Coast Sea Slug Census.

2) Photo by Anne Winters