Hancockia uncinata - first record from Scotland
September 12, 2008
From: Jim Anderson
Bill,
This is a first sighting of this species in Scotland.
It was spotted by my buddy, Iain Graham, during a dive in the Sound of Mull on Sunday. Water temperature was 14 deg C.
Locality: Sound of Mull, 17 m, Scotland, NE Atlantic, 7 September, rocky reef. Length: 15 mm. Photographer: Jim Anderson.
Kind regards,
Jim A
jander4454@gmail.com
Dear Jim,
Thanks for the record of this rarely reported species. It is a species I have wanted to add to the Forum but have been unable to find photos of. I have included close-ups of your photos as they show the details of the rhinophores, the hand-like oral lobes and the branching of the digestive gland in the cerata. It looks as though each white spot on the upper half of each ceras represents the tip of a digestive gland branch. Eliot (1910) reported that this species has cnidosacs, containing stinging nematocysts as in many aeolids, at the tip of digestive gland branches, so these upper whitish pustules may be these structures described by Eliot..
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Eliot, C.N.E. (1910) A monograph of the British nudibranchiate Mollusca with figures of the specics. pt. VIII (supplementary). Figures by the late Joshua Alder and the late Albany Hancock, and others: 1-198, Pls. 1-8. Ray Society, London.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
