Lobiger souverbii from Bahia de Banderas

June 6, 2002
From: Ali Hermosillo

Dear Dr. Rudman,
Sandra Millen and Mike Miller were diving with a few weeks ago. Sandra and I were looking for sacoglossans in some species of Codium and Caulerpa with no luck. After they left, I went for another dive at Playa Mismaloya, Bahia de Banderas, Pacific Coast of Mexico. The past few weeks we had a dramatic rise in the water temperature which brought a rapid growth of alga all over.

This Lobiger souverbii was in a species of Caulerpa, 20 feet deep, 9 May 2002. Length: 7mm (there was a smaller one with it).

It only has one lobe, however, I do not know whether I caused it to autotomize the rest or this was done before I saw it.

I have read the identification of this species is confusing because the number of lobes it has. It autotomizes them rather easily. This one has only one, I do not know whether it lost the other when I collected it or was like that before. It is really small but you can see the characteristic blue lines on the shell. I like the lower right picture that shows it coiled under the Caulerpa as it shows just how hard they are to spot.

Ali

gueri25@hotmail.com

Hermosillo, A., 2002 (Jun 6) Lobiger souverbii from Bahia de Banderas. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/7005

Dear Ali,
Thanks for the photos. Looking for cryptic sacoglossans on their food plants can be a soul destroying exercise. I remember the first time I visited the Great Barrier Reef and was looking for sacoglossans living on Caulerpa racemosa. I really wanted to see living bivalved gastropods for the first time. After a week's searching and it seemed many tons of Caulerpa I admitted defeat. To build up the museum's collections we used to wash samples of algae in dilute formalin and preserve to washings for lab investigation. Months later a technician came up to me and said how rich in bivalve sacoglossans our samples were - and the three of us in the field had not seen one of them alive!
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2002 (Jun 6). Comment on Lobiger souverbii from Bahia de Banderas by Ali Hermosillo. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/7005

Factsheet

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