Dendronotus robustus from Massachusetts, USA
March 8, 2007
From: Alan Shepard
Bill -
I saw Erling Svensen's wonderful photos of Dendronotus robustus [#19087 ] and figured I might as well send you my rather poor shot of the species. I have encountered this species only once and unfortunately it was at the end of a dive with only one frame left in the camera and a framer a bit too small for the species. The result was a shot which does not show the entire nudibranch and a rather poor shot at that. The coloration was a yellowish gold with numerous spots.
Locality: Folly Cove, Gloucester, 4 metres, Massachusetts, USA, Atlantic Ocean, summer 2003, Sandy bottom edged by rocks and boulders. Length: 5 centimetres. Photographer: Alan Shepard
Anyway I encountered it in the summer of 2003 in only 4 metres of water in a very sandy area. It was fairly large compared to other local species at just over 5 centimetres. I know of only one other local underwater photographer that has been able to take a photograph of D. robustus locally and he encountered it twice in the same cove at a depth of about 20 metres. His specimens were red with the typical spots.
This is one species that I really wish I would encounter again.
Alan Shepard
alan.chepard@snet.net
Shepard, A., 2007 (Mar 8) Dendronotus robustus from Massachusetts, USA. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19620
Dear Alan,
Thanks very much for this photo of an animal from the other side of the Atlantic than Erling's. Don't worry that it isn't perfect - imperfections add reality to the Forum. Your photo shows an almost identically coloured animal, and if I look carefully I am pretty sure that the gills, instead of having a single trunk, are a cluster of two or three stalks, as in Sven's animal.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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