''Kaloplocamus maru'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

sea slug Sea slug is a common name for some marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are sea snails (marine gastropod mollusks) that over evolutionary t ...

, a nudibranch, a shell-less

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

in the family

Polyceridae The Polyceridae are a taxonomic family of sea slugs, dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusks within the superfamily Polyceroidea. Taxonomy The family Polyceridae is classified within the clade Doridacea, itself belonging to the clade Euct ...

Description

The living animal has a general orange color. The whole dorsum has brown dots except the tips or apex of the lateral appendages, which are pale yellow. The dorsum has a white diamond shaped spot that runs from the behind of the rhinophores to the tail (just behind the branchial leaves). The end of the foot is acute and has a similar color to the appendage apices. Two types of appendages are observed. The first type of appendages are longer and wider and are positioned at the margin of the sides of the animal. These appendages have apical ramifications that are rounded at the base with a long, thin and sharp prolongation. Small acute ramifications cover the remaining parts of the appendage. The second type of appendage is thin, long with many small sharp, thin and long simple ramifications. These appendages are present on the entire body, sides, foot, and dorsum. The oral veil has four appendages, two of which are longer, situated at the lateral edges of the oral veil and two that are shorter situated in the center. The rhinophores have a lamellate clavus and a peduncule with acute ramifications. Each rhinophoral sheath edge has three ramifications. The middle one is virtually identical to the lateral appendages. The other two ramifications are similar to the smaller tentacles of the rest of the body. The oral tentacles are simple folds of the mantle with the appearance of cylinders. The three branchial leaves are tripinnate. They have the same simple and thin ramifications as the smaller appendages.

Distribution

The type locality for this species is Palau.

References

Polyceridae Gastropods described in 2006 {{Polyceridae-stub