Chromodoris willani - where it lives

July 31, 2003
From: Andrew Watts

I have just returned from the Wakatobie Marine national park [Indonesia] where I have been carrying out my research for my BSc Dissertation project on the placement of nudibranchs around different types of sites.
Reef walls
Reef slopes
Reef flats
Different depths (13 and 5 meters).
Different sediment levels.

I found that the only place I saw Chromodoris willani was on the reef wall, with many over hangs. High coral cover. Currents were not to strong. Would you know what factor would dtermine that they are only found on this reef wall? And would there general location change though out the season?
Andrew Watts

andywatts777@hotmail.com

Watts, A., 2003 (Jul 31) Chromodoris willani - where it lives. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10592

Dear Andy,
All things being equal, I would say the first thing to consider is its food. As you probably know, most nudibranchs have a very specific diet, and in the case of chromodorids this means each species usually eats only one or a very few species of sponge. Therefore the most important factor affecting where it lives will be its food. I guess its a bit late now but my advice would have been to identify its food sponges and find if their local distribution and that of C. willani coincided. The other important factor to look at when considering local distribution of a species is its development type. If the species lays eggs which develop into planktonic larvae then there is probably not much relationship between adults and their off-spring. However if the species has direct development and the young hatch out of the eggs capsule as a crawling young then there would be a clear relationship between the presence of adults and the presence of young. So the second bit of advice I would have suggested would be to look at the type of development found in C. willani.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Jul 31). Comment on Chromodoris willani - where it lives by Andrew Watts. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10592

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