Re: Chromodoris willani - eggs & food

December 12, 2007
From: Barbara Hanchard

Concerning message #21302:

Thanks Bill for the comments. Just some other observations now that you have pointed out the lack of spots on the rhinophores and gills on one of the photos. There were eight animals on the sponge, which I also suspect after a bit of reading is Semitaspongia. I am use to seeing C. lochi, which is quite common here but C. willani less so, with pinkish gills and rhinophores so I didn't think that there was anything but one species on this sponge. But on hindsight the animals where in two distinctive clusters and sizes. The more elongated (poss C. lochi) were on the top the sponge while the C. willani tended to be rounder (perhaps because they were stationary and feeding) and clustered closer together in the folds of the sponge.

Barbara

barbara.hanchard@ffa.int

Hanchard, N.B., 2007 (Dec 12) Re: Chromodoris willani - eggs & food. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21306

Dear Barbara,

If you get a chance to follow this up I would be interested to know what you find. Certainly C. willani has a more oval shaped mantle with a wider 'skirt' than C. lochi, but spots, or lack of spots, on the gills and rhinophores may be more difficult to see in situ through a mask.

C. willani  has also been found together with C. elisabethina on another thorectid sponge Luffariella sp. [message #12031] which lends support to the suggestion that these species, which look alike, are part of an aposematic mimicry group in which distasteful species with similar colour patterns share the load of teaching fish to leave them alone.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Dec 12). Comment on Re: Chromodoris willani - eggs & food by Barbara Hanchard. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21306

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