Re: Ercolania sp. 5 [1]

May 18, 2007
From: Kathe R. Jensen

Concerning message #16458:

Dear Bill,
The animals in Yukari Tani's message appear to be missing the large medial cerata in the anterior end. If you look at the anteriormost cerata, they appear to be very small (newly formed). I have seen Ercolania coerulea spontaneously autotomize the larger cerata when the chloroplasts had turned pale/brownish. Although this was in aquaria and thus may not be a natural phenomenon, it was not in response to physical irritation.

Best wishes,
Kathe

krjensen@snm.ku.dk

Jensen. K.R., 2007 (May 18) Re: Ercolania sp. 5 [1]. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19911

Dear Kathe,
Thanks for your quick response. You are probably correct. There certainly are signs of autotomy in the photos, and body damage. I also have had bad experiences collecting and photographing E. coerulea in Tanzania [message #6580, #13310] - they seem to drop their cerata very easily.

It would be interesting to know if the animal I have been calling Ercolania sp. 5 is found on Valonia sp. or Dictyosphaeria cavernosa which seem to be the food algae of E. coerulea.

Before I start splitting up the 'page' it would be interesting to here the views of Yoshi Hirano or Cynthia Trowbridge

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (May 18). Comment on Re: Ercolania sp. 5 [1] by Kathe R. Jensen. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/19911

Factsheet

Ercolania sp. 5

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