Ceratosoma tenue from Anilao, The Philippines

April 10, 2007
From: Paul Osmond


Hi Bill,

Had some very nice images of a Ceratosoma tenue that I wanted to share.

I found this specimen moving around on the muck dive at Basura in Anilao, The Philippines. The soil here is very dark, and this leads to a lot of unusual life living there. In the images you can see that it is moving over a rocky area, which would mean that the depth would be less than 10 m - below that the dive site is primarily sand.

Locality: 'Basura', Anilao, 10m, Batangas, The Philippines, 14 August 2006, Dark Soil, Muck Dive. Length: 30mm. Photographer: Paul T. Osmond.

Yours,
Paul
www.deepseaimages.com

marriard@deepseaimages.com

Osmond, P.T., 2007 (Apr 10) Ceratosoma tenue from Anilao, The Philippines. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19699

Thanks Paul,

Your animal clearly shows the large whitish glands around the edge of the 'dorsal horn' very well. I suggested that the dorsal horn was most probably a distasteful lure packed full of antifeedant chemicals obtained from their sponge food (Rudman, 1984, 1988, 1991). Recently, Ernesto Mollo and his colleagues (2005) have indeed shown that in Ceratosoma gracillimum,  the sole ichthyotoxic feeding deterrent present was a sponge-derived sesquiterpene, and it was exclusively located in these mantle glands of the dorsal horn.

  • Mollo, E., Gavagnin, M., Carbone, M., Guo, Y.-W. & Cimino, G. (2005) Chemical studies on Indopacific Ceratosoma nudibranchs illuminate the protective role of the dorsal horn. Chemoecology, 15: 31-36.
  • Rudman, W.B. (1984) The Chromodorididae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Indo-West Pacific: a review of the genera. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 81(2- 3): 115-273.
  • Rudman, W.B. (1988) The Chromodorididae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Indo-West Pacific: the genus Ceratosoma J.E. Gray. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 93(2): 133-185.
  • Rudman, W.B. (1991) Purpose in Pattern: The evolution of colour in chromodorid nudibranchs. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 57(T.E.Thompson Memorial Issue): 5-21.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Apr 10). Comment on Ceratosoma tenue from Anilao, The Philippines by Paul Osmond. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19699

Factsheet

Ceratosoma tenue

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