A Protea dorid.
Photo Guido Zsilavecz
A section of the newly found colony.
17 individuals circled
Photos Peter Southwood
This rare dorid was only consistently found on a single sponge at Pinnacle, south of Gordon's Bay, by SURG members. The colony consisted only of a few individuals, and while the sponge on which the species feeds and lives is quite abundant, no other colonies were found until recently. On a dive from Pinnacle to Cow and Calf Peter Southwood found a new colony on a somewhat darker sponge than the one at Pinnacle. This is a much larger group as can be seen from the photo. The estimate is between 20 and 30 specimens in an area of about 0.5 square metres of sponge. This site is about 150m north of Pinnacle at 11m depth.
For more details on this dorid, see "Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay", now available from SURG and better Cape Town dive shops.
Nudibranchs of the Cape Penisula and False Bay. G Zsilavecz, 2007.
Nudibranchs of Southern Africa - a guide to the opisthobranch molluscs of southern Africa, T Gosliner, 1987.