Re: Bosellia from Japan

March 2, 2004
From: Cory Pittman

Dear Bill,
Concerning your comments on Jun Imamoto's recent message [#11858]:
I'm probably the source of the Hawaiian animal in the photo that Terry showed to Kathe. So, I thought I'd send a bit of info. :-)

In 1999, I found five specimens in shallow Maui waters. The first four were collected between April 19 and April 26 at Hekili Point. They were taken in algae washes at depths of around 1 m in a semi-protected, back reef habitat. The fifth was collected on November 11 in an algae wash that covered a depth range of 0.5 to 2.6 m on an accretion platform at Maalaea Bay. Sizes ranged between 3.5 mm and 7 mm. All animals were bright green with variable amounts of white mottling and a hint of dusky-pink on the translucent tips of their rhinophores. A small amount of dusky-pink was sometimes present on the anterior edges of their parapodia.

The 7 mm animal, collected on April 26, was held for several days in a small dish with a piece of Halimeda discoidea (a common species in the habitats where they were found). I observed it feeding on the Halimeda and it showed a diurnal activity pattern. While held, it laid three egg masses: on April 29th (12 whorls, 2.5 mm in diameter); on May 2nd (10 whorls, 2.3 mm in diameter); on May 5 (8 whorls, 2 mm in diameter). All of the egg masses were circular and composed of a tightly coiled ribbon only one or two eggs in thickness. The eggs were bright lemon-yellow and there was an interrupted line of opaque lemon-yellow “extra-capsular yolk” running along the inner margin of the ribbon. The interruptions in the line of “extra-capsular yolk” were very regular giving it the appearance of a row of short dashes.

Unfortunately, I didn't photograph the egg masses (that was before I'd purchased my digital camera). However, I gave Pauline Fiene one of the animals to photograph. The attached shot of it crawling was taken by her. The specimens were deposited with Terry at CAS.

By the way, Atsushi Ono also includes photos of this species in his book Opisthobranchs of Kerama Islands (misspelled as "cf. Besellia mimetica").

I hope this will be of interest.
Best wishes,
Cory Pittman

cory@cet.com

Pittman, C., 2004 (Mar 2) Re: Bosellia from Japan. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12348

Thanks Cory,
I don't know if the white mark in the middle of the back is significant but both your animal and the Japanese ones have it. When Eveline Marcus was working on these animals she encouraged me to go looking for them in the Indo-Pacific on Halimeda. Although I have found plenty of Elysiella pusilla, I am still to find a Bosellia. They are clearly very well camouflaged.
Best wishes
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2004 (Mar 2). Comment on Re: Bosellia from Japan by Cory Pittman. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12348

Factsheet

Bosellia sp. 1

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