Re: Herviella mietta? from Japan.
December 24, 2003
From: Jun Imamoto
Dear Bill.
Thank you for valuable comment. Here is a photo taken in the same neighborhood as where the sea slug was observed. It shows an egg mass and one of the sea anemone's i mentioned in my earlier message. I suspect the egg mass belongs to Herviella mietta. There were many egg masses and anemones, but I'm afraid I have no direct evidence that the egg masses were made by Herviella mietta, but I thinnk it is probable that it would lay its eggs near its food. I will continue my investigation of Herviella mietta.
Date: 18 Dec 2003
Amami, Ooshima Islands, Kagoshima, Japan.
size: about 4-7mm (The diameter of the egg mass)
depth: 0.5 m
temperature: 22 C
Best Regards,
Jun Imamoto
imamoto@umiushi.info
Imamoto, J., 2003 (Dec 24) Re: Herviella mietta? from Japan.. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11728Thanks Jun,
Thanks for this interesting addition. As I mention on the Fact Sheet, Young reported that this species has a form of direct development where the veliger larvae develops in the egg capsule and then metamorphoses into a crawling slug within the egg capsule. The eggs in your mystery egg ribbons are quite large so they could well be thoes of a direct developer. I look forward to future instalments of information.
Best wishes
Bill Rudman
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