Thorunna punicea again [1]

April 25, 2008
From: Colin Ogden


Dear Bill,
At last another Thorunna punicea.  Photos A and B we have already discussed, but photo C is the new one. Obviously these nudis are very rare here, but they have been on 3 different reefs over a period of over 2 years.

Locality: Sodwana Bay, 21 metres, South Africa, Indian, 06 September 2007, Reef. Length: 45 mm. Photographer: Colin Ogden.
A.  Ribbon reef 22nd July 2005
B.  Bikini reef 10th November 2006
C.  Fusilier reef 6th September 2007
One thing that I find remarkable about this nudi is the colour scheme is always the same.

The consistant factors are: Winter or early summer when our water temperature is relatively cold, between 22 and 23 degrees centigrade.
The reefs are not just coral, but a fairly proportionate mixture of coral and sponge. All at a depth of 18 to 21 metres

I don't know whether the above is of any significance, but I will keep looking to see if we get a consistent pattern.
Regards
Colin

scubaco@iafrica.com

Ogden C M, 2008 (Apr 25) Thorunna punicea again [1]. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20671

Dear Colin,

Thanks for keeping this in mind. It is possible the animal in Photo A just appears to have a much wider Chromodoris -like mantle skirt. Apart from looking at their anatomy one thing you could look out for is what they eat. The animal in Photo B, eats a species of Dysidea, which is illustrated in an earlier message [#19739] with a rather characteristic skeleton embedded with sandgrains [you can also see a bit of it at the top left of Photo B]. If the animal in Photo A is different it may show this by feeding on a quite different sponge, as species of Chromodoris and most Noumea don't feed on dysideid sponges. But as you already know it's not always an easy task to find what they feed on

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (Apr 25). Comment on Thorunna punicea again [1] by Colin Ogden. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20671

Factsheet

Thorunna punicea

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