Re: Freeze-branding slugs
February 11, 2004
From: Jessica Marsh
Dear Bill,
Thanks for your comments. I will be working off the coast of Maine. Dendronotus frondosus is very common in this area, and is one of the few nudibranchs seen in my particular area of study. I don't think I'll have any problems with identification, but thank you for the heads up, I'll keep you posted with my findings.
Thanks again,
Jay Marsh
jmarsh@mma.edu
Marsh, J., 2004 (Feb 11) Re: Freeze-branding slugs. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12146Dear Jay,
As you'll see from the other messages concerning Dendronotus on the Forum, it is probably worth keeping an eye out for 'consistent anomalies'. There still seems to be enough uncertainty surrounding just how many species there are in the Atlantic, for you to cover your options. You don't want to discover at the end of a long ecological study that you had two or more cryptic species mixed up in your sampling. I guess if you start to find consistent colour or morphological differences and can match them to a food choice or a different egg mass then you would have a trigger to consider looking at the anatomy, or getting someone else to. You may be quite correct in thinking you have only one species, but it is always worth keeping alert to the possibility you may have more than one species.
See Dendronotus frondosus and Dendronotus cf. frondosus Atlantic - Nth America Pages and the attached messages.
Good Luck
Bill Rudman
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