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Opisthobranch of the Week Data
Taxonomy:
Bergh (1877) published the name Discodoris schmeltziana in a list but it was not properly described until the year 1880 (Bergh, 1880). D. schmeltziana is considered to be very rare in the waters of Okinawa's main island in as much as I've seen and collected a total of three individuals, the first on 12 May, 1989, the second a few days later (18 May), and the most recent (the third specimen), on 24 March, 1995. All three specimens were found at the same dive site, Seragaki, and from beneath slabs of coral rubble. Discodoris schmeltziana was originally described from the Society Islands, French Polynesia. As of the current date the Sea Slug Forum has images of the species from Hawaii and Papua New Guinea; Mike Miller has images of the species from the Philippines and Atsushi Ono (2004) has several images of it featured in his latest book, Opisthobranchs of Ryukyu Islands, on page 136 as his Discodoris sp. 2 as well as in his earlier book (Ono, 1999) as Discodoris sp. 3 on p. 106.
The patches of pale purple or lilac tubercles, which are usually surrounded by an area of yellowish tubercles, would appear to separate this animal from other members of the species. I've added a second page with three additional images of the above featured animals as well as a photo of a 49mm specimen.
I've previously featured on these pages the following members of the genus:
Discodoris boholensis Discodoris lilacina Discodoris cf. palma Discodoris sp. 1 Discodoris sp. 2
Literature Cited:
