Bornella excepta Bergh 1884
Creators: name: Pola, Marta
name: Rudman, William B.
name: Gosliner, Terrence M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Nudibranchia
Bornellidae
Bornella
Bornella excepta

description: <i>Bornella excepta</i> Bergh, 1884 <i>Bornella excepta</i> Bergh, 1884: 34 –43, Pl. VII, figs 13–22., Pl. VIII, figs 1–13; Bergh, 1902: 202 –204, Pl. III, figs 4–5; Bergh, 1905: 220 –221, Pl. XIX, figs 25–27. <b>Material examined:</b> No specimens have been recognized as this species since Bergh (1905). <b>Remarks:</b> Bergh (1884) described <i>Bornella excepta</i> from a 60 mm preserved specimen, from Arafura Sea, in the Pacific Ocean. The color of the animal alive is unknown and no type specimen exists. Nevertheless, the author gave a fully detailed description of the external morphology and the internal anatomy. With such a good description, the species should be easily recognizable within the genus. Eliot (1904) tentatively identified a specimen of <i>Bornella</i> from the east coast of Zanzibar as this species, but there is no way of confirming its identity. There are some similarities between <i>B. excepta</i> and <i>B. hermanni</i>, but we consider the similarities to be outweighed by the following differences: the number of lamellae on the rhinophore is about 20 in <i>B. hermanni</i> and between 40 and 50 in <i>B. excepta</i>; <i>B. hermanni</i> has three pairs of dorsolateral processes with three gills per dorsolateral process while <i>B. excepta</i> has five pairs of dorsolateral processes with four gills: also the anterior digestive glands of <i>B. hermanni</i> have branches entering the rhinophore sheaths while they do not in <i>B</i>. <i>excepta</i> and, finally, the number of ovotestis follicles is different, from around four in <i>B</i>. <i>hermanni</i> to nine in <i>B. excepta</i>. The shape of the penis and its associated spines, as illustrated by Bergh (1884, Pl. 17, figs 18–22) is also very similar. There are also similarities in the shape of the dorsolateral processes and the penial armature to <i>B. dotoides</i> <b>sp. nov.</b> but the dentition on the central radular tooth of <i>B. excepta</i> appears much coarser. Until new specimens are found which are a closer match to the original description, we have no way of comparing <i>B. excepta</i> to any better known species and so must tentatively retain it as a different and valid species within the genus.
description: Published as part of <i>Pola, Marta, Rudman, William B. &amp; Gosliner, Terrence M., 2009, Systematics and preliminary phylogeny of Bornellidae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia: Dendronotina) based on morphological characters with description of four new species, pp. 1-57 in Zootaxa 1975</i> on page 16, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.185130
description: {"references": ["Bergh, L. S. R. (1884) Report on the Nudibranchiata dredged by H. M. S. Challenger during the years 1873 - 1876. Challenger Reports, Zoology, 10, 1 - 154, pls. 1 - 14.", "Bergh, L. S. R. (1902) The Danish Expedition to Siam 1899 - 1900. 1. Gasteropoda Opisthobranchiata. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter. 6 Raekke. Naturvidenskabelig og Matematisk Afdeling, 12, 153 - 218.", "Bergh, L. S. R. (1905) Die Opisthobranchiata. Siboga Expeditie Report, 50, 248 pp., pls 1 - 20.", "Eliot, C. (1904) On some nudibranchs from east Africa and Zanzibar. Part V. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 2, 83 - 105, pls. 3 - 4."]}