Philine penis correction!

After receiving Terry Gosliner's message today I redissected the penis of the 3 specimens of Philine sp2 (Philine auriformis), which Michelle had sent me from Bodega Bay. In all cases the penis fitted his description. Clearly the seminal duct had broken in the one I drew making it look like a blind sac. While I found his suggestion of a penial transplant an amusing possibility, perhaps I need an eye transplant! What does still puzzle me is that the penial structure in Californian species 2 is about third to a quarter the size of a New Zealand Philine auriformis and the prostate forms a tight tangled mass rather than large loose folding. I am still unhappy about identifying this species with the New Zealand species until the anatomy of more Japanese possibilities are known. Unfortunately I don't have any specimens of NZ Philine auriformis available for comparison and am relying on notes I made many years ago.

So where does that leave the Californian Philine story? If you are doing ecological work there are definitely 2 species present. One may be Philine auriformis and the other is possibly a species from the NW Pacific, Philine orientalis . I will post pictures tomorrow of a species from Hong Kong which looks very similar to California Species 1, and make some corrections to the Philine pages. .. Bill Rudman