TAXONOMY AND OCCURRENCE OF DENDRODORIS NIGRA AND DENDRODORIS FUMATA (NUDIBRANCHIA: DENDRODORIDIDAE) IN THE INDO-WEST PACIFIC REGION |
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| Authors: | BRODIE GILIANNE D; WILLAN RICHARD C; COLLINS JOHN D |
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| Institution: |
1Department of Marine Biology, James Cook University of North Queensland Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 4811; and
2Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory G.P.O. Box 4646 Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, 0801 |
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| Abstract: | The nudibranch Dendrodoris nigra (Stimpson, 1855) has hithertobeen considered as a single, highly poly-chromic species. Ourinvestigations of external morphology, anatomy and colour variationhave revealed more than one species exists. This conclusiongives credibility to the previous discovery of differing developmentalpatterns within D. nigra. Besides D. nigra, we recognise Dendrodorisfumata (Rüppell & Leuckart, 1830) which has three distinguishablecolour forms. The occurrence of D. nigra is confirmed to beextensive, however, the species was not found to be circum-Australianas previously reported. The presence of D. fumata in Australiais confirmed and the species is also reported from Hong Kongand Fiji for the first time. The clear separation of these twospecies and recognition of the different colour forms will permita more accurate picture of their distribution. (Received 15 November 1994; accepted 2 January 1997) |
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