Gymnodoris ceylonica from Mozambique

April 9, 2008
From: Valda Fraser

Dear Bill
Not an acceptable view at all - Gymnodoris ceylonica with it's butt in the air! What could it possibly be doing?

Locality: Pomene, 1 m, Mozambique, Indian Ocean, 18 February 2008, Pool . Length: 25 mm. Photographer: Valda Fraser.

Regards
Valda Fraser

valdafraser@mweb.co.za

Fraser, V.J., 2008 (Apr 9) Gymnodoris ceylonica from Mozambique. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21500

Dear Valda,

By complete coincidence I am posting a message today from Toh Chay Joon [#21507] showing Gymnodoris rubropapulosa in a similar pose - but horizontal not vertical. I suspect your animal is in pursuit of a prey animal, or may have it in its mouth, trying to prevent its escape. When I was a student in New Zealand I used to wonder why I often found the aglajid Melanochlamys cylindrica sitting just like your animal, with its head buried deep in coralline turf, oblivious to the fact that the tide had left it uncovered on an intertidal rock platform. It was only later, when I discovered they fed on free-living polychaete worms, that I realised the reason they were head down - or butt up as you would have it - because they had a worm in their mouth which was trying to escape down a crevice, and neither prey nor predator would give up.

If you see such an event in future, you have my permission to slightly disturb the balance of nature and have a little poke around to see what they are after. We have two observations on the Forum of this species eating Stylocheilus striatus so it would be nice to know if that was their only prey.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (Apr 9). Comment on Gymnodoris ceylonica from Mozambique by Valda Fraser. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21500

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