Dear colleagues,
Thanks a lot for your feedback and recommendations.
I made three mistakes in my previous message. Apologies to Fred, Christina and her coauthors, and our Italian colleagues. Further, I have another remark to share.
1) The compilation for species, type localities and deposition follows one of Frederik Pleijel masterpieces (1998 Zool. Scripta 27, 89).
2) Hesione sp from Lafou, New Caledonia had its 18S, 16S, and 28S sequenced (Ruta et al. 2007 Zool. Scripta 36, 99), but COI was not sequenced.
3) Italy, Sicily: Hesione sicula delle Chiaje, 1822. No type. Illustrated.
Another widely distributed pigmentation pattern involves having reddish longitudinal, irregular bands, often crossed by paler bands. This is present in H. pantherina, H. sicula, H. steenstrupi, and H. ceylonica. Unlike the Western Atlantic species, these species were described from the Northeastern Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean. Gravier recorded H. pantherina for the Red Sea and Fauvel prefered this species name over H. splendida for many of his non-AtlantoMediterranean records.
Best wishes,
Sergio
