Sargassum sea slugs in Gulf of Mexico [2]

February 22, 2010
From: Denice Drass

Dear Bill,

These specimens were collected in Sargassum with a neuston net offshore of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico in February of 2008 at around 5 am. I have wondered about how different they are and was given your website to send the pictures to. I did not measure the specimens, however the diameter of the lid that the specimens are floating in is 90 mm.

Locality: 28.00 N, 90.00 W, offshore of Lousiana, Gulf of Mexico, 09 February 2008, neuston. Photographer: Denice Drass.

Denice Drass

Denice.Drass@noaa.gov

Drass, D.M., 2010 (Feb 22) Sargassum sea slugs in Gulf of Mexico [2] . [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23257

Dear Denice,

I have separated this species out from those in your earlier message [#23255]

This is an interesting aeolid nudibranch, belonging to a group I have called solar-powered because they have adapted their digestive system and general anatomy to enable them to keep microscopic algae alive in their bodies. Have a look at the Solar-powered Fact Sheet for more information. The brown specks in the skin and the branching brown veins through the body wall are adaptations of the gut containing algae. Your species was named Facelina sargassicola Kroyer [in Bergh, 1861:322] and the name was later changed to Spurilla sargassicola. The literature is confusing because it is sometimes referred to as Spurilla sargassicola (Bergh, 1861) and sometimes as Spurilla sargassicola (Kroyer, 1861). As Bergh nominated Kroy as the author of the name in Bergh's 1861 publication the correct way to cite the name is Spurilla sargassicola (Kroyer in Bergh, 1861).

To confuse the situation, it is generally considered that Spurilla sargassicola is the same as Spurilla neapolitana. If this is so what about the different lifestyles? While S. sargassicola is found on floating Sargassum, S. neapolitana is found crawling on hard substrates. Species of Spurilla feed on sea anemones which they find on rocky shores and also brown algae. If S. sargassicola is the same as S. neapolitana it would suggest that its lifestyle on floating Sargassum could arise at the larval stage simply by its free-swimming pelagic larvae settling out on floating Sargassum rather than on the sea floor.

  • BERGH, L. S. R. 1861. [for 1860]. Om Forekomsten af Neldfiim hos Mollusker. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra den Naturhistoriske Forening, Kjöbenhavn, pp. 309-331, pl. 8.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2010 (Feb 22). Comment on Sargassum sea slugs in Gulf of Mexico [2] by Denice Drass. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23257

Factsheet

Spurilla neapolitana

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