Other Berthella stellata from Cerbere
August 12, 2003
From: Marina Poddubetskaia
Dear Bill,
As last year, I found several Berthella stellata in Cerbere. All of them were in the same site and under rocks.
The upper photo puzzles me. In the lower right corner you can see a sponge(?) which looks like this Berthella. The similarities are so visible that I wonder if there could be any relationship between them. The second photo shows a different colour form of this species.
Location: Cerbere, France, Mediterranean coast
Site: Les Chambres
Depth: 10-11m
Upper Photo: 12-14mm long, 11 July, 2003
Lower Photo: 15-20mm long, 12 July, 2003
Photos: Marina Poddubetskaia - Nembro website
Best wishes,
Marina.
nembro@nembro.info
Poddubetskaia, M., 2003 (Aug 12) Other Berthella stellata from Cerbere. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10544Dear Marina,
Thanks for the photos. This species has a reticulate [network] pattern on its back which is sometimes more noticeable than other times. I guess the degree of white pigmentation affects how visible it is against the transparency of the rest of the skin. The pattern certainly makes it look like the sponge [see close-up of your photo alongside]. Despite it being relatively common we have no good evidence on what this species eats. As I said in an earlier message other species of Berthella have been reported to eat sponges, so it could be a sponge feeder
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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