Thorunna daniellae was rather uncommon in our dive sites in Hawaii. We saw occasional specimens at Ewa, Kahe Point, and Makua. Our early records of this species are suspect, since originally we combined these with a similar but different species that was later named Thorunna kahuna. We saw far more T. kahuna than T. daniellae. Although we suspected that there were two species due to the differences in coloration, it was confirmed only after examining the internal anatomy of both species in the early 80s; their radulae were quite distinct. Externally they can be distinguished by the white background color in T. daniellae, pink in T. kahuna (bottom photo).
The photo below shows one Thorunna daniellae (top) with two T. kahuna placed together for comparison. The middle specimen was unusual in its development of a thin white submarginal line.
Created 20 April 2009