Re: Chelidonura inornata in sthn NSW
March 15, 2006
From: Francis Hawkshaw
Concerning message #16099:
Hi! Bill
I wanted to verify if the Chelidonura inornata in my earlier message had a blue bar below the white area as I described so I went back today to verify this.
I took a clean sterilised glass jar, filled it with sea water from the rock pool where the 2 Chelidonura inornata were grazing, then gently lifted one out of the water with a sterilised plastic spoon and popped it in the jar, took it's photo and gently placed it back in the water where I found it. What an amazing sea creature this Chelidonura inornata is. I thought it had a bright blue bar below the white when I photographed it yesterday, but I was mistaken there was no evidence of a blue bar.
Locality: Gerroa, just below waterline, NSW, intertidal rock pool
Francis Hawkshaw
Kiama
willowhawk@shoal.net.au
Hawkshaw, F., 2006 (Mar 15) Re: Chelidonura inornata in sthn NSW. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/16110Dear Francis,
Sometimes the colours in opisthobranchs are not caused solely by skin pigments, so colours will change in a single individual depending on its diet, the angle of the light landing on it, and being reflected by it. Chelidonura inornata certainly has a bluish tinge between the white and the black on the head, which is especially obvious as a blue patch on each side over the translucent region above the eyes. Sometimes you can certainly see a bluish band along the black and white border but I suspect it is a 'structural' colour [like a rainbow] rather than a pigment. If you look at other photos of this species on the Forum you will see that many have traces of this blue.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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