Asteronotus cespitosus? from Solomon Ids

July 16, 2003
From: Bruce Potter

Dear Bill,
On a recent trip to the Florida Islands, in the Solomon Islands, I dived a site called "Velvia". I did 6 dives on the site in a couple of days. In that time I saw at least 6 different individual Asteronotus cespitosus of varying sizes, but all of this dark red colour. The largest was about 250mm, and the smallest about 120mm. The attached photo shows two of different sizes.

What interested me was that I did not see any of the more traditional colour form. If they are in fact the same animal, and there is a progression from the smaller ones with tubercules and colour patches, to larger and plain red or brown, why did I not see any of the patterned ones on the site? The smaller of the plain red ones I found, were similar in size to the other patterned ones I have found elsewhere.

The two in the photograph were at about 12 meters deep, and the larger of the two was about 250mm. Velvia is a sea mount covered in coral and rubble and lots of hard and soft corals and sponges and tunicates. This is the site we usually find the Nembrotha family on. We found N. kubaryana, N.cristata, and N. milleri

Regards,
Bruce Potter.

bruce.potter@adventist.org.sb

Potter, B., 2003 (Jul 16) Asteronotus cespitosus? from Solomon Ids. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10262

Thanks Bruce,
Any comments on whether this dark red brown animal is A. cespitosus is welcome. Certainly in external shape it looks very similar, but I don't know if anyone has seen a red-brown specimen with a colour pattern similar to that of the typical A. cespitosus. Bernard Picton, in an earlier message, considers that it is most probably a distinct species because of its consistent colour difference
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Jul 16). Comment on Asteronotus cespitosus? from Solomon Ids by Bruce Potter. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10262

Factsheet

Asteronotus cespitosus

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