Re: Food & colour in Tritonia hombergi
May 3, 2001
From: Bernard Picton
Hi Bill,
Regarding small juvenile Tritonia hombergi, I have seen these on Alcyonium digitatum and as Jane says, they are well-camouflaged by their matching colour. However they must suffer high predation as juveniles can be very numerous but result in very few full-grown individuals at the same site. I wonder if in fact there is a balanced polymorphism with high fish predation controlling the colour of surviving individuals in shallow water - Alcyonium is usually in strong tidal streams or wave action and can also be in deep turbid water where fish would not see the Tritonia well. Tritonia hombergi adults seem to be more common in dredge hauls from deeper water and seem to be partly nocturnal or in crevices by daytime in shallow water. I suspect that we are not seeing the main breeding populations by diving.
Oddly Alcyonium on the west coast of Ireland is nearly all orange/yellow in colour whilst in SW England it is almost all white. In Scotland both colours occur.
Bernard Picton
bernard.picton.um@nics.gov.uk
Picton, B., 2001 (May 3) Re: Food & colour in Tritonia hombergi. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4272Thanks Bernard,
Bill Rudman
Related messages
-
Tritonia hombergi or T. hombergii
From: Jim Anderson, May 17, 2007 -
Re: Pigmentation in Tritonia
From: Sylvie Grall, April 16, 2005 -
Re: Pigmentation in Tritonia hombergi
From: Jim Anderson , April 14, 2005 -
Pigmentation in Tritonia
From: Eleanor Vesty, March 25, 2005 -
Food & colour in Tritonia hombergi
From: Jane Lilley, April 29, 2001 -
Tritonia hombergi from Scotland
From: Peter H. van Bragt , October 3, 2000 -
Tritonia hombergi - head and rhinophores
From: Peter H. van Bragt, October 3, 2000 -
Re: Tritonia lineata? from Malta
From: Constantine Mifsud, September 18, 1999 -
Re: Tritonia lineata? from Malta
From: Bernard Picton, September 17, 1999 -
Tritonia hombergi
From: Bill Rudman, September 17, 1999 -
Tritonia lineata? from Malta
From: Constantine Mifsud, September 9, 1999