Chelidonura pallida from Indonesia

Dear Roberto,
Thanks for the records. One value of the Forum is to give us a chance of building up a better idea of just how common, various species are. Enormous private and public shell collections have enabled us over time to build a quite good understanding of the geographic distribution of many shelled molluscs and to gain an understanding of just how common individual species are. Unshelled molluscs, such as the sea slugs, are quite a different story. Collections of any value are much more difficult to accumulate, because preserved specimens of one species look much like those of another. To be of value, specimens need to be properly fixed and preserved when collected, and accompanied by information on their living shape and colour such as drawings, field notes, paintings and more recently colour photographs.  In many ways, colour photographs are as valuable in sea slug research as shells are in 'snail research'.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman