Hypselodoris carnea is a species of colourful sea slug or dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Chromodorididae.Caballer, M. (2011). Hypselodoris carnea (Bergh, 1889). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2012-05-28Johnson R.F. & Gosliner T.M. (2012) Traditional taxonomic groupings mask evolutionary history: A molecular phylogeny and new classification of the chromodorid nudibranchs. PLoS ONE 7(4): e33479]
Distribution 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.Rudman, W.B., 1999 (December 10) Hypselodoris carnea (Bergh, 1889). [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.Debelius, H. & Kuiter, R.H. (2007) Nudibranchs of the world. ConchBooks, Frankfurt, 360 pp. page(s): 130
Description 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 capensisGosliner, T.M., Behrens, D.W. & Valdés, Á. (2008) Indo-Pacific Nudibranchs and seaslugs. A field guide to the world's most diverse fauna. Sea Challengers Natural History Books, Washington, 426 pp. page(s): 261 and perhaps species of the Hypselodoris maculosa complex.Bidgrain, P., 2018. Variability in Hypselodoris maculosa Sea Slugs of the Indian Ocean, accessed 2012-01-16. It feeds on sponges.
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