Chromodoris willani feeding, (red) sponge - Philippines

January 21, 2009
From: Marcel Tanke

Hi Bill,
As per my earlier message [#22170] here are the C. willani feeding on (red) sponges.

All 3 pictures are from Anilao, in the Philippines . Upper two from July 2008, Lower from December 2008. Photographer: Marcel Tanke.

Best regards,
Marcel

marceltanke@cs.com

Tanke, M.A., 2009 (Jan 21) Chromodoris willani feeding, (red) sponge - Philippines. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22171

Dear Marcel,

Thanks again for checking out feeding records and in particular, red and white sponges. It would have been nice to have C. willani on a red sponge, like we have found the similarly coloured C. quadricolor and C. hamiltoni but in this case the red is not a sponge pigmentation but a coloured layer on the surface of the grey sponge. In your upper photo it is restricted to the ridges while in the lower photo it seems to form a uniform layer. Sponges quite often incorporate other organisms in the outer layers and I suspect this is some plant or bacterial layer. The sponge is almost certainly a species of the thorectid genus Semitaspongia, either the same or related to the sponge in your earlier message [#22170]. As I commented in that message, I am very grateful for any sponge association photos, because getting the same result many times is a valuable confirmation of its food choice.

Your photos also show the dark and paler colour forms together. I has wondered if this was a result of different food sponges but that doesn't seem likely from your photos. Also of interest is the brown submarginal band around the mantle. I have had great difficulty seeing the mantle glands in this colour group of chromodorids. Usually in species of Chromodoris they are easy to see as opaque white bands or ramifying clusters, but in this group there is usually no sign of them. The brown of this band closely matches the brownish colour of the sponge. Perhaps this is the place the antifeedant molecules from the sponge are accumulated in these species. If they are in sacs or glands we will need to look harder for them.

A very interesting message
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2009 (Jan 21). Comment on Chromodoris willani feeding, (red) sponge - Philippines by Marcel Tanke. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22171

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