Re: Doto amyra from La Jolla Shores, California

February 26, 2007
From: Bernard Picton

Concerning message #19454:

Hi all,

I think you have actually got several species of Doto here lumped under Doto amyra. Here in the NE Atlantic Lemche showed in 1976 that several species had been lumped under Doto coronata. Since then we have treated these as different species, normally feeding only on a single hydroid. We then find that the appearance of each species is not very variable and it all begins to make sense. As Jeff mentions in his message #15664 there are two development types as well, so that increases the likelihood that they are species rather than colour varieties. (Bear in mind that Pat Krug has now shown that Alderia modesta consists of two species on the Pacific coast, the new one *can* switch developmental modes).

Heike Wagele has done some DNA work on these now and that confirms that the ones she has looked at are species. (Incidentally they are quite distinct 18S sequences compared with other Cladobranchs.) The external and internal differences are subtle, similar to the forms that Jeff Goddard has described. It has been puzzling me that there were not many species known from the north Pacific as generally diversity is higher there than in the north Atlantic. I think you Pacific workers all need to start splitting them into groups on the basis of which hydroid they are eating and start with the assumption that each will be a species. That way if you gather data that shows that one form on a particular hydroid is actually the same (including DNA) as another then you can lump them together later. If you start with a lump you won't gather the evidence correctly to split it.

Bernard Picton

bernard.picton@magni.org.uk

Picton, B. E., 2007 (Feb 26) Re: Doto amyra from La Jolla Shores, California. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19518

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