Re: Doto floridicola from British Isles

August 1, 2002
From: Bernard Picton


Hi Bill,
It's nice to see Marina's photos of Doto floridicola as I've been wondering if this was what I've been finding around our SW coasts. This year I saw animals on the Costa Brava which are certainly the same as the one we called Doto sp.A in our book and I'm now convinced that it must be Doto floridicola. I first saw this species at Skomer Island, Wales in June 1990, then at the Blasket Is., Co Kerry, SW Ireland in July 1990 and not since until this year, when I found it on the Aran Is., Co. Galway in June 2002.

My observations are that Doto floridicola is only found on Aglaophenia kirchenpaueri. On Aglaophenia tubulifera we get Doto lemchei, which is similar in size and proportions but quite different in pigmentation. On Aglaophenia pluma we get Doto koenneckeri, which grows a bit larger and has black spots on the ceratal tubercles like most of the other Doto species in this part of the world.

These Doto species are very closely associated with their hydroid food, and in my observations seem to stay hidden at the base of the food most of the time, apparently drilling a small hole in the rhizoidal tissue and feeding suctorially on the hydroid coenosarc through this hole. Occasionally they will drill the main stem of the hydroid but they don't seem to eat the polyps at all. They climb the stems to spawn, so the spawn coils are a good clue that a clump of hydroid is being attacked by Dotos.

The Doto radula is unusual in that the teeth are not symmetrical, they are alternately right-handed and left-handed, like the teeth on a saw.

Upper Image - Doto floridicola - Blasket Is., Co Kerry, Ireland - July 1990
Lower Image - Doto floridicola - Inishmore, Aran Is., Galway, Ireland - June 2002

Bernard

bernard.picton.um@nics.gov.uk

Picton, B. , 2002 (Aug 1) Re: Doto floridicola from British Isles. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/7673

Thanks Bernard,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2002 (Aug 1). Comment on Re: Doto floridicola from British Isles by Bernard Picton . [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/7673

Factsheet

Doto floridicola

Related messages

  1. Doto floridicola from French Mediterranean
    From: Sylvain Le Bris, June 26, 2007
  2. Doto floridicola from Turkey
    From: Haluk Akbatur , June 5, 2003
  3. Doto floridicola from French Mediterranean
    From: Patrick Heurtaux, July 31, 2002
  4. Doto floridicola from French Mediterranean
    From: Marina Poddubetskaia, July 27, 2002

Show factsheet and all related messages