Goniobranchus leopardus, is a species of colourful sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Chromodorididae.Gofas, S. (2015). Goniobranchus leopardus (Rudman, 1987). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2015-11-17Johnson R.F. & Gosliner T.M. (2012) Traditional taxonomic groupings mask evolutionary history: A molecular phylogeny and new classification of the chromodorid nudibranchs. PLoS ONE 7(4): e33479
Distribution This species has been reported from NW Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands.Rudman, W.B., 1999 (January 22) Chromodoris leopardus Rudman, 1987. [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Wells, A., 1998. Mollusca – The southern synthesis, vol.5, CSIRO,
Description Goniobranchus leopardus can reach a maximum size of 6 cm length. The body is elongate with a foot which is distinct from the upper body by a large skirt-like mantle hiding the foot.Debelius, H. & Kuiter, R.H. (2007) Nudibranchs of the world. ConchBooks, Frankfurt, 360 pp. page(s): 141 The top of the mantle is brownish with dark spots circled with white. The margin of the mantle is white with at the external border a fine purple to electric blue line.Gosliner, T.M., Behrens, D.W. & Valdés, Á. (2008) Indo-Pacific Nudibranchs and seaslugs. A field guide to the world's most diverse fauna. Sea Challengers Natural History Books, Washington, 426 pp. page(s): 217 The rhinophores are lamellate and contractile, the base is white topped with blue to purple but they can also be white with a longitudinal blue to purple line. The branched gill has a whitish external side, the internal surface is golden.Warren, Lindsay, Corolla, Jean-Pierre, Sittler, Alain-Pierre, (2014) Chromodoris leopardus Rudman, 1987 in : DORIS, January 3, 2014Debelius, Helmut, 2001, Nudibranchs and Sea Snails: Indo-Pacific Field Guide, IKAN – Unterwasserarchiv, Frankfurt, Germany.David Behrens, Nudibranch behaviour, Newworld Publications INC., 2005, Gary Cobb & Richard Willan, Undersea jewels – a colour guide to nudibranchs, Australian Biological Resources Study, 2006,
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