Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 163, July 2018, pp. 1-21. | Page 4

4
0.6..60.62 66 ‫خلف‬ ‫عُال‬ ‫الكابتن‬ ‫الغواصة‬ ‫عدسة‬ 66 ‫مترا‬ 61 ‫عُمك‬ ‫على‬ ‫دِبا‬ ‫بحر‬ ‫من‬ ‫الخٌاشٌم‬ ‫عاري‬ ‫بٌكاتشو‬ ‫البحر‬ ‫بُزاق‬
Pikachu Nudibranch Sea Slug (Thecacera pacifica), 19 meters deep, from the Reef Blocks site in
Dibba Sea, Gulf of Oman, Photo by PADI Dive Instructor Ola Mostafa Khalaf. 26.06.2017.
http://nudibranch.webs.com/thecacera-pacifica
This species is known from the African coast of the Indian Ocean (Mozambique) to
Indonesia and Vanuatu. It has also been reported from the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic
Ocean (Wikipedia)
This polycerid nudibranch is translucent orange in colour with black tips to the
rhinophores and gills. The rhinophore sheaths are edged with black with a patch of blue
at the widest part. This blue colour is also present at the tip of the tail and at the tip of
the lateral papillae beside the gills, separated from the orange of the body by a black
band. Some specimens have black linear marks on the body with blue centres
(Wikipedia).
Thecacera pacifica is characterized by its orange body, its extrabranchial processes,
extrarhinophoral processes and the 'tail' are white tipped diffusing into blue then into a
black band. The rhinophores are orange with a black apex, the gills have a black line
along the outside (Köhler, 2017).
Pretty similar is Thecacera sp. 01 which has black spots on the body and black tipped
extrabranchial processes (Köhler, 2017).
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 163 – July 2018