Mating Activity - Nembrotha rutilans

January 18, 2001
From: Ken Knezick

[Note added 4 March 2008: This is the new species Nembrotha aurea - see message #21419]

Thank you for your ID of my Ceratosoma sinuata. I greatly appreciate the knowledge base represented by this list.

Thought you would enjoy the accompanying photo, taken near Padar Island, Indonesia (part of Komodo National Park).

I watched these two individuals find one another and begin mating. After exhausting my film, I surfaced, had lunch, returned two and a half hours later, and they were still colorfully engaged.

Color me jealous!
Cheers,
Ken

ken@islandream.com

Knezick, K., 2001 (Jan 18) Mating Activity - Nembrotha rutilans. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3551

Dear Ken,
Apart from being a very colourful photo, this shot has some valuable scientific information. There are a number of very similarly coloured 'species' of Nembrotha which have been considered good species by some and perhaps just colour varieties by others. For example compare Nembrotha rutilans with Nembrotha purpureolineata, Nembrotha megalocera, Nembrotha sp. 1 and Nembrotha sp. 2.

In your photo, one of the animals has 5 relatively thin brown lines and the other has 3 broad dark brown bands. I am not sure that this solves everything, but it certainly shows that quite major colour differences can occur in one species.

The Forum is both a place to get things identified and a place to share information and interesting photos. Over the last few years we have gained a lot of interesting information on the biology of these amazing animals, which is of scientific value. So apart from nice photos of interesting animals, if you have photos of animals 'doing things' such as feeding, breeding, laying eggs etc they would be very welcome,
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Jan 18). Comment on Mating Activity - Nembrotha rutilans by Ken Knezick. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3551

Factsheet

Nembrotha aurea

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