Re: aeolids from Massachusetts

February 13, 2001
From: Terry Gosliner

Dear Bill,
Alan Shepard's photos look to me like pale specimens of Flabellina verrucosa. This species is highly variable, especially in the color of the digestive gland that is visible through the cerata. It can range from pale pink to red to chocolate brown. The opaque white markings on the oral tentacles and the arrangement of the cerata appear to be characteristic of F. verrucosa.

I am reminded of a story about this species that was told to me by Alan Kuzirian. Hennig Lemche was visiting Trish Morse at the Marine Lab of Northeastern University in Nahant, Massachusetts. He was struck by the variability of various specimens of Flabellina from the area that had dramatically different coloration. He drew beautiful water colors of each variation, convinced that each represented a distinct species. Alan then changed prey species for the color variants and they all had the same coloration. Lemche was still not convinced that these all represented color variants of Flabellina verrucosa that were based on different prey species. However, the evidence was pretty convincing. These variations can sometimes fool the experts!
Terry Gosliner

tgosline@calacademy.org

Gosliner, T., 2001 (Feb 13) Re: aeolids from Massachusetts. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/3787

Thanks Terry,
Bill Rudman

Factsheet

Flabellina verrucosa

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