Nembrotha cristata feeding
August 8, 2007
From: Dr. Matt Doggett
Hi,
I have not yet got round to buying a nudibranch book but would really like to know what this one is please? Can anyone help? Initially I thought it was a Chromodoris sp. but now I am not so sure...
Locality: apo Island, 10 m, Philippines, Philippine Sea, Nov 2006, Coral reef. Length: c.a. 4 cm. Photographer: Matt Doggett.
Thanks
Matt
mattdoggett@hotmail.com
Doggett, M.J., 2007 (Aug 8) Nembrotha cristata feeding. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20385Dear Matt,
This is Nembrotha cristata, which is quite similar in shape and colour to N. kubaryana. I have been wondering out loud on the Forum - as I tend to do - whether these two species could perhaps be separated on their choice of food. Like all species of Nembrotha, they feed on ascidians, but from records on the Forum, N. cristata seemed to prefer compound ascidian colonies and N. kubaryana preferred larger species which are either solitary or clumped together. Your photo seems to send that theory to the scrapheap as I am pretty sure this N. cristata is eating the blue solitary ascidian. It is in fact surrounded by these ascidians, which normally favoured by N. kubaryana.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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