Limapontia senestra from Britain
March 10, 2004
From: Helen Marshall
Hello Bill,
Thought you may be interested in the attached pictures. They are of Limapontia senestra (going by the finger-like head tentacles). They were collected from the Fleet, Dorset, UK, back in August. They were tricky to photograph due to their speed but I think the end result is OK! Hope they are of use!
Many regards,
Helen Marshall
202934@swansea.ac.uk
Thanks Helen,
It's surprising how little common animals like this are often the last to be photographed. As you say, they are very small and fast moving which makes macrophotography very difficult. I remember in the 1970s, Tom Thompson showing me this species and L. capitata during a trip I made with him to Plymouth, and I decided that since it was so abundant I would photograph it some other time - always a fatal mistake.
Apart from the obvious rhinophores in this species, it seems to have a rather characteristic pattern of colourless patches on the body. In your lower right photo, the swelling on the right side caused by the bursa copulatrix is quite clear. This is another character separating it from other species of Limapontia. This species, like a number of sacoglossans, mates by injecting its sperm directly through the body wall. I am not sure in this species whether the sperm then migrates to the bursa, or whether the slug has to aim for the bursa when they inject the sperm. In some species I think the theory is that a new bursa forms around the injected sperm. As you can imagine, this is all very difficult to study, as you need to kill, preserve and then cut histological sections of the animal to find out what is going on. There is always a chance that what you see is a result of the preparation of 'the specimen' rather than evidence of what really takes place.
Best wishes
Bill Rudman
