Flabellina iodinea feeding

February 2, 2007
From: James Lyle


Dr. Rudman,

The colorful "Spanish Shawl" nudibranch (Flabellina iodinea) is common in Southern California waters and the Forum has a nice set of images of these branchs, but I did not see any showing feeding behavior. One of the attached images clearly shows the branch munching on its favorite food, Eudendrium. The other two images are close ups of the head, one showing the eye spot and the other the mouth parts.

Locality: Redondo Beach, 20 meters, California, USA, Pacific Ocean, 28 February 2007, wreck. Length: 2.5 cm. Photographer: Jim Lyle.

Jim Lyle

jlyle@adelphia.net

Lyle, J.L., 2007 (Feb 2) Flabellina iodinea feeding. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19353

Thanks Jim,
The colour of this species is quite spectacular. I guess I have seen illustrations of the anterior foot before, but your photos of the head suggest that the large tentacular processes on each side of the mouth seem to originate from the head rather than the foot. Quite a few aeolids have the anterior corners of the foot extended out as tentacles to varying degrees, culminating in species which are said to have 'tentacular foot corners'. In all those cases the 'foot corners' are clearly part of the foot. In your photos, they seem to be quite separate from the foot. It would be interesting to know what they do during feeding. I can't see what they are doing in your photo. Are they involved in feeding?

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Feb 2). Comment on Flabellina iodinea feeding by James Lyle. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19353

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