Re: Hypselodoris tricolor, on Cacospongia

April 3, 2009
From: M. Baki Yokes

Concerning message #22011:

Dear Bill,
I scanned all our photographic database, and found these photos, showing the same blue Hypselodoris species on a sponge other than Dysidea avara. These photos are from the same dive site as the photos of the same species feeding on Dysidea avara in my message #5338.

Locality: Saros Bay, Canakkale, Turkey, June 2001. Photographer: Hasan Yokes.

Best wishes
Baki

bakiyokes@turk.net

Yokes, M.B., 2009 (Apr 3) Re: Hypselodoris tricolor, on Cacospongia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22390

Dear Baki,

From the single whitish line on the outer edge of each gill this is certainly what Ortea, Valdes & Gomez (1996) define as Hypselodoris tricolor. It certainly seems from these photos and earlier ones on the Forum [#22011, #22013, #22014 ] that this species feeds on this grey sponge which Prof Bergquist identifies as Scalarispongia scalaris (rather than a species of Cacospongia ).

Until these records were posted, Hypselodoris orsinii was the only one of these Mediterranean blue chromodorids which could definitely be said to feed on thorectid sponges such as Cacospongia and Scalarispongia. There are a couple of earlier records in the literature of H. tricolor feeding on Cacospongia which I have listed below, but without photographs of the specimens observed, it is impossible to check the identity of the animals. In their review (Ortea, Valdes & Garcia-Gomez, 1996) report H. tricolor to feed on Dysidea and they report literature records of it containing the furanosesquiterpenes which is a metabolite associated with dysideids but not thorectids such as Scalarispongia.

This suggests that either H. tricolor feeds on both dysideid and thorectid sponges - which would be unique - or we are dealing with a pair of species mimicking each other. From looking at the photos on the Forum I can see no obvious or subtle differences but what would be really useful is to know the colour of the gills on the animals feeding on Dysidea. Unfortunately they are withdrawn in your photos [message #5338]. Have you other photos of the ones on Dysidea showing the gills?

  • Ros, J. (1978) La alimentación y el sustrato en los opistobranquios ibéricos. Oecologia aquatica, 3, 153-166.
  • Vicente, N. (1967) Contribution à l'étude des gastéropodes opisthobranches de Golfe de Marseille. 1.Systematique, ecologie, biologie.  Recueil des travaux de la station marine d'Endoume - Marseille, 42, 133-179.

Thanks for following up on this exciting observation,
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2009 (Apr 3). Comment on Re: Hypselodoris tricolor, on Cacospongia by M. Baki Yokes. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22390

Factsheet

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