OKINAWAN
OPISTHOBRANCH OF THE WEEK

Opisthobranch of the Week Data

Taxonomy:

        The above featured little plakobranchid, Elysia amakusana, was photographed by Atsushi Ono from the waters of Aka Island in the Kerama Islands, one of a series of islands in the Kerama Islands Group, which are located 30 ~ 40 kilometers west of the Okinawa Capitol, Naha. This featured animal was photographed by Atsushi during June of 2003 in 15m of water from a sandy bottom. I've not personally seen E. amakusana in the waters of Okinawa's main island and Atsushi reports (pers. comm.) seeing only the above single individual and of course considers the animal to be very rare in the Kerama Islands.

        The animal was originally listed in Baba (1949) as Elysia japonica Eliot, 1913. The name was subsequently altered by Baba (1955) to E. amakusana. In the more recent publication by Baba (1955), he mentions "the species amakusana differs from japonica of ELLIOT in having finely denticulate teeth". I've added a second page with the original illustration of Baba's animal (Baba, 1949 {as E. japonica }) of E. amakusana.

        Bill Rudman (2000) has a series of photos of E. amakusana posted on the Sea Slug Forum from both South Korea and Japan.

        In addition to the above featured Elysia amakusana, the following Elysia have been previously featured on these pages:

E. cf. bennettae

E. lobata

E. mercieri

E. obtusa

E. ornata

E. rufescens

E. cf. tomentosa

E. thompsoni

E. yaeyamana

Etymology:

Literature Cited: