Diario de anudibranchmom

Time to take a second look at your Apata observations, and time to get out a pencil and annotate your field guide.

Correction from the authors to "Nudibranchs and Sea Slugs of the Eastern Pacific," 2022: Please note that the bold subheads on page 122 of Apata pricei and Apata cf. pricei were inadvertently swapped. The first, more colorful slug on page 122 should be labeled Apata cf pricei, and the second slug should be labeled Apata pricei. The authors also inform me that the range of Apata pricei has been updated to Korea, Japan, and Russia through Ketchikan, Alaska to Monterey Bay, California.

THEREFORE, according to the Bible, we have three zones to look at:

1) North of Crescent City, California thorough Alaska, plus Korea, Japan and Russia: You're 100% Apata pricei (though there's possibly a subspecies in Asia, which we won't get into here).

2) South of Monterey Bay, California: You're 100% Apata cf. pricei. Please change all of your observations to Genus Apata (no species-level ID) and in Description, write "Apata cf. pricei" until these are formally described.

3) Overlap Zone in California (Crescent City to Monterey Bay): These observations will need to be re-identified manually; please look for the following ID clues:

Apata pricei: no reddish band on cerata and opaque white on most of the length of the rhinophores
Apata cf. pricei: reddish band near the tip of the cerata, with opaque white on tips of rhinophores only

BOTH COMMON NAMES on iNat ("Smooth Tooth Aeolid" and "Price's Aeolid") refer to the true Apata pricei; Apata cf. pricei does not have a common name and is unlikely to have one until it is formally described.

Good luck correcting your IDs and a big thank you to @lutea11 for all her work on this difficult genus and the excellent field guide.

@tgosliner @jeffgoddard @hsini_lin @juliabohemian @walkabata @chilipossum @mcduck @passiflora4 @nudibitch @helgeweissig @erwinkoehler @chlorophilia @lemurdillo @jpsilva @imlichentoday @kueda @kestrel @rebeccafay @jannvendetti @hfb @lutea11

Retraction of last week’s correction from the authors: “After much discussion and research we have determined that the book [Behrens et al, 2022] is correct as printed.” So the “southern” nudibranch REMAINS Apata pricei, and the “northern” form (without the reddish bands on the cerata) is Apata cf. pricei.

Good luck re-correcting your IDs and a big thank you to @lutea11 and @jeffgoddard.

@tgosliner @jeffgoddard @hsini_lin @juliabohemian @walkabata @chilipossum @mcduck @passiflora4 @nudibitch @helgeweissig @erwinkoehler @chlorophilia @lemurdillo @jpsilva @imlichentoday @kueda @kestrel @rebeccafay @jannvendetti @hfb @lutea11