Re: Favorinus sp. 3 ? from East Timor

July 21, 2008
From: Brian Francisco

Concerning message #21700:

Hi Bill

I should have remembered Ayumi Murakami's messages from April regarding Favorinus. It just didn't occur to me that the eggs didn't belong to the aeolid. The dive site where this was found is scattered with spent egg sacks and other membrane-like structures. And at the time, it seemed that one of these had simply rolled over and engulfed the aeolid and its eggs, trapping them together.

I've cleaned up another photo from the dive (very silty) which shows adjacent egg sacks, but unfortunately no detail of the second aeolid.

Locality: Sandy Bottom, 14 metres, East Timor, Banda Sea, 13 July 2008, sandy slope. Length: 5 mm. Photographer: Brian Francisco.

As usual, thanks for the information.

Brian

francisco.brian@gmail.com

Francisco, B., 2008 (Jul 21) Re: Favorinus sp. 3 ? from East Timor. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21711

Dear Brian,

Thanks for the extra photo. As a rule of thumb, opisthobranchs don't produce egg masses much larger than themselves. Species of Favorinus produce a long thin egg string which is either arranged in a neat flat spiral or in a three-dimensional tangle. I am not sure, but I suspect if there is a flat surface they will lay a spiral but if not, they produce a tangle. There are photos of egg masses of F. tsuruganus [message #10739] and F. blianus [message #4710] on the Forum.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (Jul 21). Comment on Re: Favorinus sp. 3 ? from East Timor by Brian Francisco. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21711

Factsheet

Favorinus sp. 3

Related messages

  1. Re: Nudi in a Bubble
    From: Tony Wu, April 19, 2010
  2. Re: Nudi in a Bubble
    From: Tony Wu, April 19, 2010
  3. Nudi in a Bubble
    From: Jeff Davies, September 30, 2009
  4. Favorinus sp. 3 ? from East Timor
    From: Brian Francisco, July 17, 2008
  5. Re: Different egg masses eaten by Favorinus sp. 3
    From: Cory Pittman, May 1, 2008
  6. Several type of egg mass that Favorinus sp. 3 eat
    From: Ayumi Murakami, April 30, 2008
  7. Egg-eating aeolids from Japan
    From: Ayumi Murakami, April 30, 2008
  8. Photos of an egg-eating aeolid
    From: Terry Gosliner, August 11, 2000
  9. Re: egg-eating Favorinus
    From: Terry Gosliner, July 30, 2000
  10. Re: egg-eating aeolids
    From: Denise Nielsen Tackett, July 28, 2000
  11. Nudibranchs inside egg cases
    From: Denise Nielsen Tackett, July 17, 2000

Show factsheet and all related messages