Re: Glossodoris atromarginata from Vietnam

July 12, 2006
From: Bruce Wilkie


Concerning message #17105:

Hi Bill,
I have been reading Mike`s message [17105] concerning Glossodoris atromarginata and your comments about not having many records of these animals feeding or their association with sponges. These animals are fairly common around here (one or two animals seen on almost every dive), so here are photo`s for your records.

Locality: Upper Photo: Shag Rock, Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island., 10 metres, Queensland Australia, Pacific Ocean, 30 December 2005, rocky reef with sponges, hard & soft corals . Length: 35mm. Middle Photo: Flat Rock, North Stradbroke Island, 11th December 2005, 14 m, 26 Dec. 2005, Queensland Australia, Pacific Ocean. Lower Photo: Flat Rock, NSI, 19th April 2006, 12mts, 23dec, Queensland Australia, Pacific Ocean. Photographer: Bruce Wilkie.

I hope you can ID the sponges.

Many Thanks,
Bruce Wilkie.

brucedwilkie@yahoo.com.au

Wilkie,B, 2006 (Jul 12) Re: Glossodoris atromarginata from Vietnam. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17112

Dear Bruce,
I knew if I continued to be a pain in the neck someone would finally come good. I have found this species a couple of times on branching, 'obvious' sponges but I have never been able to be sure just what G. atromarginata were doing when we found them on apparently featureless, unidentifiable, substrates like this. But in these three photos the sponge is very clear, and in the lower photo we can see a large whitish patch where the slug has eaten out a chunk of the sponge colony. I am pretty sure that the sponge in the three photos is the same species, and as you can see in the upper photos it changes colour from white to almost red, and to greyish purple in the lower photo. I suspect the colour change is due to symbiotic bacteria or algae in its tissue. This is almost ceratinly a sponge of the family Thorectidae and by lucky chance I am meeting my sponge expert next week so will confirm this identification. This is a wonderful find and solves a long term mystery.

Your middle photo also shows the colour variation from almost white to dark brown very well.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Jul 12). Comment on Re: Glossodoris atromarginata from Vietnam by Bruce Wilkie. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/17112

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