Re: Trapania naeva? from Indonesia

June 10, 2008
From: Teresa Zuberbühler

Concerning message #17339:

The picture I send you looks similar to Trapania naeva but the spots are not so distinctive.

This nudibranch is extremely small and difficult to find. Both times I saw it, it was pearching on an piece of wood which was left in the water close to the shore. I asked myself if it is feeding on something which is mainly growing on those logs. Perhaps those polyps (probably hydroids) you see on one of the pictures?

I also send you a picture of what I think are copepods in the gills of Trapania naeva.

Locality: Maumere, 10m max, Flores, Indonesia, Pacific, August 07, muddy with very fine sand mixed with volcanic ash. Length: 7mm to 1cm. Photographer: Teresa (Zubi) Zuberbühler.

Greetings from Switzerland
Zubi

webmaster@starfish.ch

Zuberbühler, T., 2008 (Jun 10) Re: Trapania naeva? from Indonesia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21604

Dear Zubi,

Your animals don't 'fit' nicely with any named species, which is not that surprising, as we don't know much about their colour variability. I guess its best to tentatively identify them as T. naeva, as their brown gills and brown oral tentacles certainly fit - but it is possible they are something distinct.

Concerning what they are eating - species of Trapania seem to feed on kamptozoa, which would be right at home on the piece of wood you have photographed. Looking carefully at your photos I can't see any sign of them, but their zooids could be retracted. There are plenty of other animals present included tube-dwelling polychaete worms, cnidarians [sea anemones?] and possibly phoronids. Many sessile invertebrates have a ring of feeding tentacles which make them look superficially like hydroids.

Your lower photo shows and animal with two large copepod egg masses. Interestingly the background colour of that Trapania appears to be a uniform brown colour, which would be even more unusual for T. naeva.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (Jun 10). Comment on Re: Trapania naeva? from Indonesia by Teresa Zuberbühler. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21604

Factsheet

Trapania naeva

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