Re: Food of Jorunna funebris

March 31, 2008
From: Samson Tan

Concerning message #4279:

Hi Bill
I found this nudibranch yesterday during my inter-tidal walk at Semakau Island, south of Singapore. What puzzle me was the 'feeding habit' observed. It looks like this Jorunna funebris is feeding on the seaweed which is very unlikely. Have you came across any of such observations? I didn't find any blue sponges in the radious of 5 meters.

Locality: Semakau Island, south of Singapore, Inter-tidal area, Singapore, Singapore Straits, 21 March 2008, Inter-todal area at Seagrass lagoon. Photographer: Samson Tan.

Samson Tan

sos001y@yahoo.com

Tan, S., 2008 (Mar 31) Re: Food of Jorunna funebris. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21467

Dear Samson,
Sea grass beds, even intertidal ones, have a surprisingly rich fauna, including many animals which attach themselves to the stalks of the plants living there. There are many small sponge colonies to be found there, and sometimes they grow to quite large sizes. If you find an apparently 'lost' sponge-feeder, like Jorunna, there are a number of possibilities. It could be an unfortunate animal that has become detached and washed away from its normal environment, but the more likely possibility is that it has been living and growing in the seagrass bed on a sponge colony which it may have now completely eaten. Another possibility is that there is a sponge colony there that you missed, perhaps it was on the underside of a rock?

It is definitely not a herbivore. Sponges can often be quite difficult to find. For many years I tried to find what was the food sponge of  Rostanga arbutus, a common species around Sydney, without success. Finally I found it by taking a geological hammer to the rock platform and discovering a bright red sponge living only in the horizontal cracks in the sandstone rocks, quite invisible to normal search techniques. That is not an incitement for you to destroy your shore to find this blue sponge, just a warning that sometimes even a most common inhabitant can be easily missed.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (Mar 31). Comment on Re: Food of Jorunna funebris by Samson Tan. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21467

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