Re: Cerberilla tanna? from Florida

May 7, 2003
From: Dave Behrens

Hi Bill:
Jeff's photo is definitely the same species shown in Paul Humann and Ned Deloach's second edition of Reef Creature Identification. Paul asked me to confirm the identifications in this edition which includes almost twice the number of species as his first edition. Like you, I could make no recommendation on the name, because of the Marcus' cursory orginal description. Hard for me to see similarities between Linda's critter and this one, but who knows. As you say - need to see the radula.
Dave Behrens

info@seachallengers.com

Behrens, D., 2003 (May 7) Re: Cerberilla tanna? from Florida. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/9877

Thanks Dave,
Working on the assumption that Linda's animal is much smaller than Jeff's, the reason I suspect they are the same species is that the black markings around the head of Linda's animal persist in Jeff's, and as we can see in Cerberilla incola black spots on the cerata can change into a pair of black lines. There is also another reason I suspect they're the same. If I found 2 specimens of Cerberilla at the same place, in the same week, I would need very good reasons to consider them different species - after all, to echo the cladists, it is the most parsimonious solution.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (May 7). Comment on Re: Cerberilla tanna? from Florida by Dave Behrens. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/9877

Factsheet

Cerberilla sp. 7

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