Dendronotus iris from Monterey, California

June 6, 2001
From: Clinton Bauder

Hi Bill,
This may fall in to the "happy accident" category. The anchor for the dive boat I was diving off of on saturday dragged a bit before I got into the water. Instead of diving Hopkin's Deep Reef I ended up in Hopkin's Even Deeper Sandy Bottom or something like that. Anyway the bottom at about 28 meters was covered with egg masses from the squid Loligo opalescens. Many of what appeared to be older egg masses were covered by small (< 25mm) examples of Dendronotus iris. It wasn't clear if they were eating the eggs or not.

Larger examples of Dendronotus iris eat the tube anemone Pachycerianthus fimbriatus but I've never seen these smaller guys feeding on anemones. Has anybody else ever observed something similar or have more information on the diet of juvenile Dendronotus iris?

I'd post a picture but my camera is in the shop for some preventative maintenance and thus I didn't have it with me.

Clinton

gecko1@apple.com

Bauder, C., 2001 (Jun 6) Dendronotus iris from Monterey, California. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4510

Dear Clinton,
Thanks for the interesting observation. Some species of Dendronotus include hydroids in their diet so perhaps D. iris does as well. It would be interesting if they also ate squid eggs. Hopefully someone will have some observations for us.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Jun 6). Comment on Dendronotus iris from Monterey, California by Clinton Bauder . [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4510

Factsheet

Dendronotus iris

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