Dolabella auricularia and burrowing

March 17, 2001
From: Don Barclay

Hi Bill,
I hate to increase the message backlog with an anecdotal report, but at least it won't require any photo manipulation or digging through species descriptions! You may have already received ten comments on sea hares burrowing, nevertheless here is another one...

Most of the Dolabella auricularia that I see in American and Western Samoa are buried, from 20 to 30 cm deep in clean sand, typically. I was in Western Samoa several times in the past few months, and found dozens of D. auricularia while fanning the sand under coral boulders looking for some of the molluscivorous Conus species. They were usually flattened out against the hard substrate, some buried as deep as 40 cm! Interestingly, I never found any of the molluscivorous cones sharing a coral boulder with a sea hare. Some areas were densely populated with D. auricularia, with about one of every three boulders producing one. (Approximately the same proportion yielded either Conus bandanus, C. omaria, C. textile, C. canonicus, or C. striatus.)

It seems the main areas for these burrowers are shallow sand flats (one to two meters deep) with some grass and scattered coral slabs or boulders. They are abundant near shore just west of Apia Harbour (immediately west of Kitano Tusitala hotel), Upolu Island, Western Samoa, and almost as common in the area fronting the Piula Cave Pool, on the east end of the same island. They are not uncommon in the same type areas of American Samoa. I find them most often near the yacht club on the west side of Pago Pago Harbor, and they are also typically buried in 20 to 30 cm of clean sand.

I have found other species covered with sand, but Dolabella auricularia is the only one I've seen that seems to truly burrow in the sand. I wouldn't be surprised if some related species behaved in a similar fashion, though.

Thanks for making the Forum such a valuable resource.
Cheers,
Don

n5ols@samoatelco.com

Barclay, D., 2001 (Mar 17) Dolabella auricularia and burrowing. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3985

Dear Don,
I'm always happy to receive messages, especially ones with interesting information like this. I would agree that a depth of 30 cm (1 foot) is a sign of burrowing rather than being covered by sand. I don't know of any other rceord of such deep burrowing. I normally wouldn't look below about 10cm for opisthobranchs so its lucky you were hunting for cone shells. It would be interesting to know how long they stay buried. Do they bury during the day and emerge to feed at night?

This is a very interesting observation. It certainly means that a new dimension will need to be added when ecological studies are conducted on these animals. Has anyone else seen this or something similar with other Sea Hares?
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B, 2001 (Mar 17). Comment on Dolabella auricularia and burrowing by Don Barclay. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3985

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Dolabella auricularia

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