Verconia cf romeri (Risbec, 1928)
14mm
This one could be Verconia
romeri. Most specimens mostly lack the distinct white border characteristic
of that species, although there is usually a faint trace of white along the
very margin. The Marshall Islands specimens match the redescription of V.
romeri in Rudman (1984) in the vibratile gills and white mantle glands that show
up in preservative. The radulae are also similar if not exactly identical. Rudman's
specimen had fully had the outer half of the half-row with elongate adenticulate
teeth while the Kwajalein specimen in the first photo below had middle half
row teeth with a single denticle that diminished outward and disappeared on
the outermost 2 or 3 teeth. A drawing of selected teeth from the 14mm Kwajalein
specimen's radula is here. The single Enewetak Atoll specimen was lighter
pink; all of the more than a dozen observed at Kwajalein were darker pink like
most of the photos below. Specimens were found on lagoon interisland, pinnacle,
and leeward seaward reefs under dead coral at depths of 4 to 12 meters. Four
measured specimens ranged from 10 to 14mm. This species eats the same pink sponge
as V. simplex. A specimen from
the Marshalls was figured in Gosliner
et al (2018) as Verconia sp. 9.
The pair in the following photos was found eating pink sponge under a rock
on a Kwajalein Atoll lagoon pinnacle at a depth of about 8m on 30 November 2008.
Notice how the margins especially on the larger one bulge out midlaterally,
similar to what is seen in Verconia decussata
and V. simplex.
The lighter pink specimen in the
next photo was found on 18 August 1981 at 4m in the lagoon of Enewetak Atoll.
The white border around the specimen below is more like other figured specimens
of Verconia romeri, such as that in Gosliner et al (2018). It was a 14mm specimen under dead coral on a Kwajalein Atoll
lagoon reef on 14 August 2010. The lower photo shows it as found, on its prey
pink sponge, before it got disturbed and started crawling away.
Created
19 December 2005
Updated 23 November 2021
Return to chromodorid thumbnails
UnderwaterKwaj home