Thuridilla hopei? from Croatia
June 26, 2002
From: Andreas Ahrens
Hello Bill!
In the bay of Split (Croatia, Adriatic Sea, June 07, 2001) I took this photo of a slug that looks like the upper right photo in Miquel Pontes' message about Thuridilla hopei. The shape of the body is typical for the family Elysiidae, but the rhinophores are completely different (see close-up): they are much smaller and round without sharp edges. For comparison I included a photo of a typical Thuridilla hopei (blue variant, juvenile) from the same region. Is Thuridilla hopei really able to change the form of it's rhinophores so drastically or is this another species?
Andreas
Andreas.Ahrens@hamburg.de
Ahrens, A., 2002 (Jun 26) Thuridilla hopei? from Croatia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/7347Dear Andreas,
The rhinophores do look a bit strange. If you look at Erwin Kohler's message, he has a photo [ek061905] from Croatia of an animal with almost the same colouration as yours but with longer, more normal, rhinophores. This species seems very variable in colour, but in all the photos on the Forum, except your animal, there is a white band running up the rhinophores. I suspect the absence of this in your animal suggests that it has been damaged - perhaps the rhinophores bitten off - and has regrown them as best it can, without the white band.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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