Hancockia californica from Pacific Grove, California
December 1, 2009
From: John K Yasaki
Concerning message #21337:
Hi, Bill;
Found a large number of these critters on red algae (Palmaria mollis?) off Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, California. I'm attaching several images; feel free to weed out any you find redundant or whatever. Lengths of the animal in these images I would approximate as 3/8 to 3/4 inches.
Locality: Lovers Point; Pacific Grove, 35 to 40 feet, California, USA, Monterey Bay; Pacific Ocean, 31 May 2009, Rocky Reef. Length: 3/8 to 3/4 inch (9 to 19mm). Photographer: John Yasaki.
These photos show a single animal and two that seem to be egg-laying. In a second message [#22516] I have more photos including two showing mating.
jky
jyasaki@chabotcollege.edu
Yasaki, J. K., 2009 (Dec 1) Hancockia californica from Pacific Grove, California. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22515
Dear John,
Your photos give us a few more vieiws of the strange 'handlike' cerata these animals have. I presume they are eating hydroids living on the algae. The traces of a white network we can see on the algae are, I guess, the remains of hydroid colonies.
If you look at Sean Kearney's earlier messages [#12295, #12269] there are some closeup photos of feeding.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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