Dondice occidentalis from Massachusetts?

February 22, 2010
From: Emily Keen


In our collections for our Advanced Invertebrate Zoology lab at the University of South Florida our professor, Dr. Pierce, stumbled upon this stowaway slug. The pictures are from under a dissecting microscope. My TA, Laura Bedinger, was able to provide more information about where it may have come from in hopes that will help to identify this slug. This sea slug was shipped by The Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole. It shipped in as a surprise bonus with Tubularia. I hope this helps! Thanks!

18 February 2010. Photographer: Emily Keen.

 Possibly a Facelina bostoniensis?

I hope this helps!

Thanks!

Emily Keen.

emilykeen@mail.usf.edu

Keen, E., 2010 (Feb 22) Dondice occidentalis from Massachusetts?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23258

Dear Emily,

I assume that if it was shipped by The Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole then it come from the Woods Hole, Massachusetts region.  I am not an expert on the species from the east coast of North America so I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong, but my first thought is that this is Dondice occidentalis? It is quite variable in colour but it can have a coloured median line down its back which is sometimes white or bluish white and sometime yellow or orange with or without a white or bluish-white border. The line can be entire or broken into a number of elongate patches. Your animal certainly has traces of this ornage median line bordered with white. It also has an orange line on each side of the head which runs down each side below the cerata. D. occidentalis has up to 18 annulations or rings on the rhinophores - I can see traces of wrinkles in your photos but I am nor sure if they count as 'annulations'. 

If your animal does turn out to be this species, it is from quite a bit further north than it is usually recorded.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2010 (Feb 22). Comment on Dondice occidentalis from Massachusetts? by Emily Keen. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/23258

Factsheet

Dondice occidentalis

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