I identify this animal as Hypselodoris maridadilus, although this remains questionable. It had been suggested on the Sea Slug Forum that these could be a form of Hypselodoris whitei, but for quite a while I did not think this was possible. Hypselodoris whitei we have seen in the Marshall Islands has crosshatching lines between the longitudinal maroon lines and they just did not look much alike at all. Since then, however, we did find a H. whitei at Kwajalein Atoll that had no crosshatching lines and looked a lot like the Hawaiian animals. The Kwajalein specimen was paired up with a typical H. whitei. A large proportion of specimens of H. whitei we have seen in the Philippines and Indonesia also lack or have reduced crosshatching. If the presence of crosshatching cannot distinguish the two species, that leaves the rhinophores as the only differentiating external character: all orange in H. maridadilus and with a small white tip in H. whitei. However, these Hawaiian specimens and most other photos I've seen attributed to H. maridadilus do have a small white tip. To me, these characteristics throw the enitre issue into doubt once again, suggesting that at least many H. maridadilus, including those on this page, should be considered H. whitei. All Hawaii H. maridadilus I saw looked like the photos below. I recorded 15 specimens in Hawaii, all in the Magic Island channel.
A close view of the anterior end shows a somewhat pustulose body.
Created 20 April 2009