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

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