Orange colour form of Laila cockerelli

July 6, 2000
From: Bruce Wight

Hi Doc,
I saw Jeff's latest on Laila. I have always taken Laila for a scavenger.  Next to Polycera atra, they are the most commonly seen polycerid in Laguna Beach were I do most of my beach diving (see attached photos all taken in Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach, California).  Unlike Polycera atra, which I usually find in the patches of Bugula, I normally see Laila cockerelli at the bottom of the mussel bed, inside the dead mussel shells, and I assumed they were feeding on the remains.  I encountered a dead kelp crab (Pugettia producta) filled with well over a dozen of these little guys cleaning out the inside of the carapace, also in Laguna Beach.
Bruce Wight

bwproductions@earthlink.net

Wight, B., 2000 (Jul 6) Orange colour form of Laila cockerelli. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2655

Thanks Bruce,
I wonder if anyone else has observed eating a bit of carrion? It would be quite an easy little test to set up to see if they were attracted to dead and decaying animals. The other possibility is that they have a negative response to light and shelter or hide inside holes and containers. Crab carapaces and mussel shells would do just as nicely. We have a common small octopus, which is very poisonous (Hapalochlaena sp), and it does just that, hiding in shells, bottles, beer cans.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 2000 (Jul 6). Comment on Orange colour form of Laila cockerelli by Bruce Wight. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2655

Factsheet

Limacia cockerelli

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