Petalifera petalifera from Turkey
October 16, 2003
From: Baki Yokeş
Dear Bill,
I have a species that I have kept it in my aquarium for 4 months. It arrived with some Caulerpa fronds which I had collected from Antalya [Turkey]. It looks like Dolabrifera dolabrifera. In the beginning it was colourless, but as it grazed on the walls of the aquarium it got browner. What is your suggestion? If my ID is correct do you know any records of Dolabrifera dolabrifera from the Mediterranean? A new lessepsian migrant perhaps??
Thank you in advance
Best wishes
Baki
bakiyokes@turk.net
Dear Baki,
I am pretty sure this is a colour form of Petalifera petalifera. The problem with many of these aplysiids is that they have been studied on the whole as preserved museum specimens with little note being taken of the living animals. We are still very much in the infancy of studying them as living animals. As you have seen in your aquarium, it seems some species are capable of changing their colour either with age or in response to the colour of the algae they are feeding on. In fact Ortea & MartÃnez (1991) report this for P. petalifera rom the Canary Ids. This species, if it is indeed one species has a wide distribution around the world.
In the close-up photo at the bottom left, you can see how the parapodia are reduced to a pair of small rounded flaps to form a cover over the reduced shell and mantle cavity
• Ortea, J.A. & MartÃnez, E. (1991) El Orden Anaspidea (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia) en las Islas Canarias. Rev. Acad. Canar. Cienc.,. 3(4): 87-107.
Best wishes
Bill Rudman
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