Re: Dendronotus rufus? from Alaska
December 11, 2006
From: Gordon Robilliard
Concerning message #18740:
These are almost certainly D. rufus. The greyish body with maroon cerata tips is a good trait. The maroon may be more or less intense, though I have no idea why. From my recollection (30+ years ago), there was not any obvious geographic gradient in color intensity. As a side note, occasionally one might find speciments that are almost entirely maroon even on the body. This is reminiscent of the reddish/orange body color of a few D. iris. Again I have no idea why the color variants unless it is a genetic aberration or some genetic recessive expressing itself.
Dave Behrens comment about possibly being D. frondosus has some merit in that D. frondosus is one of the most diverse of the NE Pacific Dendronotus with regard to color patterns. They are also fairly polymorphic in size, cerata, and veil papillae. (Maybe they are actually subspecies though I never investigated this possibility).
Gordon Robilliard
grobilliard@entrix.com
Robilliard, G. A., 2006 (Dec 11) Re: Dendronotus rufus? from Alaska. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/18977Dear Gordon,
It's good to hear from you after so many years. I look forward to further contributions
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
Related messages
-
Dendronotus rufus - egg predation 3
From: Jan Kocian, April 30, 2007 -
Dendronotus rufus - egg predation [2]
From: Jan Kocian, February 9, 2007 -
Dendronotus rufus eggs - starfish predation
From: Jan Kocian, February 9, 2007 -
Dendronotus rufus? from Alaska
From: Bradley Stevens, December 5, 2006 -
Dendronotus rufus from Puget Sound
From: Jan Kocian, February 1, 2006
