Master of camouflage - unknown aeolid

January 4, 2007
From: Erwin Kodiat

Hi Bill,
This one was spotted by a friend and it was so difficult to photograph due to its shape and color so blended into the hard coral it stands. Can you help me ID this?

Locality: Lembeh Strait, 7 metres, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, Lembeh Strait, 23 October 2006. Length: 2 cm. Photographer: Erwin Kodiat.

Erwin Kodiat

ungu@terong.com

Kodiat, E., 2007 (Jan 4) Master of camouflage - unknown aeolid. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/18937

Dear Erwin,

This aeolid has a shape and colour to render it almost invisible on this sponge colony. Although in shape it looks quite like a tritoniid, its rhinophores are not those of a tritoniid, but almost certainly those of an aeolid. Which raises the question of why an aeolid, which don't feed on sponges, is camouflaged to live on a sponge?  Perhaps the sponge-like colony is not a sponge, but it doesn't look like a cnidarian colony either, which are the usual food of aeolids. There is a strange cuthonid, Cuthona kuiteri, which is also found on particular sponges, but it is camouflaged to look like its food, which is a solitary tubularian hydroid which lives in association with the sponge. Possibly this aeolid of yours feeds on a hydroid with a similar relationship to the sponge. If so, this is a very complex inter-relationship between three animals.

Unfortunately all I can make at this stage is guesses - but it certainly is an animal worth looking for again. If you find iy again on the same sponge, then you should look for hydroids or some other cnidarian associate of the sponge, which it could be eating.

Very interesting,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Jan 4). Comment on Master of camouflage - unknown aeolid by Erwin Kodiat. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/18937

Factsheet

Unidentified - Indo West Pacific

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