''Mexichromis katalexis'' 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 dorid 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 ...

mollusk 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 e ...

in the family Chromodorididae.MolluscaBase (2018)
''Mexichromis katalexis'' Yonow, 2001.
Accessed on 2019-01-21.

Distribution

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of this species was collected in 1990 at depth, west of Lilibooi, Hitu,

Ambon Island Ambon Island is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island has an area of and is mountainous, well watered, and fertile. Ambon Island consists of two territories: the city of Ambon, Maluku, Ambon to the south and various districts ('' ...

. Other specimens from Hitu and

Tulamben Tulamben is a small fishing village on the north-east coast of Bali. It is among the most popular dive sites on Bali since the wreck of the , a US Army Transport ship torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1942 lies just off shore. During high-season ...

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

were included in the original description.

Description

''Mexichromis katalexis'' is similar to ''

Mexichromis multituberculata ''Mexichromis multituberculata'' is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Chromodorididae. Distribution This animal was initially found in the Seto Inland Sea and Kii Channel, Japan ...

'' (Baba, 1989), which also has conical, pointed, purple-tipped papillae on the dorsum, but the mantle edged with purple patches. It is known from Japan, China, and Hong Kong and clearly differs in the shape of the papillae and the purple tuberculate margin. The two species have been seen together, feeding on the same food and were thought to be conspecific, but there are radula differences as well as colour differences.Rudman, W.B., 2002 (Feb 24)
Comment on ''Mexichromis multituberculata'' from Bali by Stuart Hutchison.
essage in/nowiki> Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.Gosliner, T.M., Behrens, D.W. & Valdés, Á., 2018. ''Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification - Indo-Pacific.'' New World Publications; 2nd Revised, Updated edition. 452 pp. , , p. 161 as ''Mexichromis multituberculata''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6826141 Chromodorididae Gastropods described in 2001