Re: any updates on Californian Philine

March 2, 1999
From: Mike Behrens

Bill,

There is not much new to report. At this point it still looks like we are only dealing with one species ("Philine auriformis"). However, one of my colleagues met some graduate students from UCLA in the mudflats of Morro Bay last month who collected some specimens that looked more like P. orientalis based on gross morphology. The specimens were unfortunately not preserved and later thrown out before anyone could positively identify them.

The Philine in Morro Bay have a cyclical pattern of abundance throughout the year with a peak in spring/summer. So we have not seen any significant numbers since late summer, but we expect the numbers to increase over the next few months. All of our work thus far has been in the intertidal, but we are trying to get out on some of the otter trawls with Fish and Game, because they have been trawling up a mysterious white slug for the last couple of months.

I will let you know if anything new comes up.

Thanks,
Mike Behrens

Michael D. Behrens
TENERA Environmental Services
P.O. Box 400
Avila Beach CA 93424

mdbh@pge.com

Behrens, M., 1999 (Mar 2) Re: any updates on Californian Philine. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/626

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