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Opisthobranch of the Week Data
Taxonomy:
Jorunna pantherina is an attractive member of the genus and is considered to be very rare in Okinawan waters; I've not personally seen nor collected any specimens and it is unknown from Okinawa Island, but has been photographed and collected by Atsushi Ono in the Kerama Islands. The close proximity of the main island of Okinawa to the Kerama Islands, as well as the similar opisthofauna to that of the Kerama Islands, suggests the possibility that it is also present here on Okinawa proper. The above featured animal is one which was photographed in the waters of Zamami Island, one of a series of islands in the
Kerama Islands Group, which are located 30 ~ 40 kilometers west of the Okinawa capitol, Naha. This featured animal was photographed by Atsushi Ono during May of 2000, from the waters of the Tonaka dive site off of Zamami Island in 18m of water (the animal was found on a rock surface). Atsushi's beautiful photograph is used here with his kind permission; it should be noted that Atsushi considers the species to be rare in the Kerama Islands in as much as he has seen only one additional animal (15mm) from that of the above featured animal (per. comm.). There is a very
similar appearing animal from Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia (Greer, 2000), on Bill Rudman's Slug Forum.
There are currently two other described species of Jorunna found in Okinawan waters, the beautiful J. funebris, and the unusual J. rubescens.
Literature Cited:
