Elysia clarki and E. crispata in Florida

October 10, 2007
From: Skip Pierce

Hi Bill
Attached are a couple of comparative photos you may be interested in (taken by my post doc Nick Curtis and our colleague Ray Martinez) that provide a further comparison of Elysia clarki and Elysia crispata, this time both from Florida. Recently, we've had the opportunity to sample populations that are geographically very close to each other, probably 2-3 miles apart as the crow flies (or fish swims). The E. clarki came from mangrove swamps on the Keys and the E. crispata came from the offshore reefs of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary at Looe Key- (all specimens were collected with permits from the State of Florida or from NOAA).  Of course, the habitat differences between the swamps and reefs are large with respect to physical, chemical and biological properties.

Locality: Florida Keys, USA, Atlantic Ocean/Florida Bay, Oct. 2007. Length: 15-20 mm. Upper photo: Left: E. clarki, showing green aggregations of chloroplast on sole of foot. Right: E. crispata showing lack of green chloroplasts on sole of foot. Middle photos: Left: E. crispata showing anterior end of parapodia fused. Right: E. clarki showing gap between anterior end of parapodia. Lower photo: E. crispata showing aggregations of green chloroplasts on head foot and parapodia. Photos: Nick Curtis and Ray Martinez.

As you may remember, the E. crispata specimens we used in our paper describing E. clarki, came from the Virgin Islands, pretty far away from Florida. But the E. crispata in these photos are identical in morphology to those from the Virgin Islands (including the opaque foot and fused parapodia), and as you can see, quite different from E. clarki, as we described. We are going to do some DNA comparisons with these Florida E. crispata and E. clarki (and the DNA data we developed from the E. clarki that Colin Redfern sent us from Abaco). That will also tell us whose chloroplasts are present in the Looe Key specimens. However it'll take us several weeks to do those experiments. By the way, the bright blue color of the E. crispata in this photo, is not always present (but also occurs in some of the Virgin Island E. crispata, as we reported) - possibly from something they've eaten, but maybe not. We have never seen that blue in 1000's of E. clarki.

Skip

pierce@cas.usf.edu

Pierce, S. K., 2007 (Oct 10) Elysia clarki and E. crispata in Florida. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20918

Dear Skip,
Thanks for these great photos. I wonder how anyone ever thought these two were one species. If the fused parapodia in E. crispata and the ramifications of the digestive gland into the foot of E. clarki can be dismissed as just 'ecovariations' it would undermine our use of morphological difference as the principal indicator of phylogenetic difference.

I have included a close-up of the head of E. crispata alongside as it shows the fused anterior parapodia very well and also shows the aggregations of chloroplasts [green specks ] which they have obtained from their algal food.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Oct 10). Comment on Elysia clarki and E. crispata in Florida by Skip Pierce. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20918

Factsheet

Elysia clarki

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