Re: Tambja ceutae from Spain

February 23, 2001
From: Juan Lucas Cervera

Dear Bill,

In answer to your question about colour variation between adults and juveniles, effectively, Tambja ceutae varies in color depending of the age of the animal, as well as the relative size of the tubercles respect the body. Thus, usually, the yellow lines of the adults are greenish or green-bluish in juveniles. Even in adults, the width of the yellow lines can be different as you can see in the Peter Wirtz's book (1995) Underwaterguide Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores or Peter Wirtz's article (1998) 'Opisthobranch Molluscs from the Azores', Vita marina, 45(1-2): 1-16, in which you can see 2 specimens of this species, one of them called Roboastra europaea/Tambja sp. (depending of the reference).

Last year, Sanchez-Tocino, Garcia and Ocaña (2000) published a color plate in their paper "The genus Tambja Burn, 1962 (Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia) in the Mediterranean Sea with remarks on the intraspecific variability", Argonauta, 14 (1): 67-75, in which is possible also to see the external differences between and juvelile and adult specimens of this species.

In a separate mail I sending you a photo of Tambja marbellensis Schick and Cervera, 1998, also from southern Iberian Peninsula.

Cheers.
Lucas.

lucas.cervera@uca.es

Cervera, J.L., 2001 (Feb 23) Re: Tambja ceutae from Spain. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3796

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