Colour of egg masses

May 31, 2007
From: David Shepherd

Greetings,
I thought these may be of interest to you. There appears to be two mating nudibranch with different coloured eggs visible.
Can you name the species, please.

Locality: Tascon Petit, Costa Brava, 8.8 metres, Spain, Mediterranean Sea, 29th August 2006, rock, covered with vegetation. Length: 30mm.. Photographer: David R Shepherd.

David R Shepherd.

daveshepherd562@tiscali.co.uk

Shepherd, D.R., 2007 (May 31) Colour of egg masses. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/18615

Dear Dave,
The animal is the aeolid Flabellina affinis and I suspect all the egg masses in your photo are from this species, if not the same animal. In this case the  darker coloured eggs are the most recently laid. As the eggs develop inot larvae and develop shells before hatching they lose some of their colour.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (May 31). Comment on Colour of egg masses by David Shepherd. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/18615

Factsheet

Flabellina affinis

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