Hypselodoris carnea | |
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Scientific classification
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Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
Order: | Nudibranchia |
Suborder: | Doridina |
Superfamily: | Doridoidea |
Family: | Chromodorididae |
Genus: | Hypselodoris |
Species: | H. carnea
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Binomial name | |
Hypselodoris carnea | |
Synonyms [2] | |
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Hypselodoris carnea is a species of colourful sea slug or dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Chromodorididae. [2] [3]
This nudibranch was described from Île aux Fouquets, Grand Port, Mauritius. It is frequently reported from South Africa, along the KwaZulu-Natal coast but these animals differ considerably from the original description. [4] [5]
Hypselodoris carnea has a flesh-red mantle with six (rarely five) longitudinal white lines, white spots and carmine spots between the lines. The edge of the mantle is yellow-red. It was described as reaching a total length of 22 mm alive. There is wide range of colour variation reported for this species and South African animals have many white lines instead of six, suggesting a species complex. It is said to be easily mistaken for Hypselodoris capensis [6] and perhaps species of the Hypselodoris maculosa complex. [7] It feeds on sponges.