Phyllidiella meandrina feeding ?

November 28, 2003
From: Marina Poddubetskaia

Dear Bill,
During my collecting mission in Mayotte (the Comoros) I was happy to see again Phyllidiella meandrina, which I saw for the first time in Reunion and Mauritius.
This specimen was found like this : staying quietly on this invertebrate. I'm not sure if it is a sponge or an ascidian. But if it is a sponge, maybe it could be its food ?

Date: November 05, 2003
Location: Mayotte Island, France, Indian Ocean
Site: Passe en S, buoy n° 3
Depth: 7m
Size: 20mm

Cheers,
Marina.

nembro@nembro.info

Poddubetskaia, M., 2003 (Nov 28) Phyllidiella meandrina feeding ?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11482

Dear Marina,
I'm afraid this animal belomgs in a problem area as far as identifications go. It is possibly a variation of P. meandrina but equally it could be a form of Phyllidiella zeylanica. We still have a bit of sorting put to do with this group of species. Concerning the potential food. Again there is an identification problem. It is not always easy to tell for photos but I wouldn't be surprised if the colony was a coelenterate colony - coral or soft coral rather than sponge. But without being able to examine it I couldn't be sure.
Best wishes
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Nov 28). Comment on Phyllidiella meandrina feeding ? by Marina Poddubetskaia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11482

Factsheet

Phyllidiella meandrina

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