This Hypselodoris is similar in overall coloration to Hypselodoris infucata and H. roo, both of which can be found in the same areas around Tulamben. The gills of Hypselodoris confetti, which have two corners on the outer face of each stalk, distinguishes H.confetti from H. infucata, which does not have the two obvious corners on the outer side. The gills of H.confetti are very similar in shape to those of H. roo, but at least the lower half of the gill coloration is blue to black rather than red and the base of the rhinophores are likewise dark blue or black. Unfortunately, among are photos are a number that seem to show the gill color intergrades smoothly from H. roo to H. confetti, making positive ID from photos questionable. Yet, although they otherwise look very much alike, H. roo and H. confetti also apparently show differences in internal anatomy and molecular characteristics. We have split ours up as best we could, but there may be some errors. We originally had these as variations of H. roo, since the body color of the H. confetti figured in Gosliner et al (2018) is much lighter than any of our specimens. However, body color does vary and a photo identified by one of the authors of H. confetti in the Slug Site is darker even than most of ours.
Created 26 December 2012
Updated 17 April 2020