Chromodoris leopardus & Hypselodoris bollandi

June 28, 2005
From: Sergey Parinov

Dear Bill,
These are three Chromodoris leopardus and one Hypselodoris bollandi. I found them during night dive near Lankayan island at sandy bottom close to the jetty ~7 meters deep.

Locality: Lankayan island, north east off the coast of Sabah, Malaysia. Sulu Sea. Depth: 7 meters. Length: 3-5 cm. April 2003. sandy bottom. Photographer: Sergey Parinov

Do you know why these two species are together?

Sergey Parinov

webmaster@sergeyphoto.com

Parinov, S., 2005 (Jun 28) Chromodoris leopardus & Hypselodoris bollandi. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14137

Dear Sergey,
The only reason I can think of to explain them being together, other than chance, is that they feed on the same species of sponge, which is perhaps hidden beneath them. My first move when seeing something like this would be to give the animals a gentle nudge to see if there was something interesting happening out of sight. While food sponge colonies are often larger than the nudibranchs, at times animals will be found feeding on small, recently settled, sponge colonies much smaller than themselves.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Jun 28). Comment on Chromodoris leopardus & Hypselodoris bollandi by Sergey Parinov. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14137

Factsheet

Chromodoris leopardus

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