Stiliger smaragdinus in Japan

July 24, 2001
From: Cynthia Trowbridge

Dear Bill,
Hi! I am back in Japan now looking at sacoglossans. Last night I looked at your page on Stiliger smaragdinus to remind myself of its appearance and this morning found four of them!!! I am so thrilled at having the Slug Forum - thank you for all the hard work for this important resource.

Anyway, first, I wanted to mention that the specimens are much larger than I expected - 3 to 4 cm. Previously, I had been looking for animals about 3-4 mm since most sacoglossans I have seen are pretty small. Roughly how large are your Australian animals? mm or cm?

Second, a query about the name. In Baba & Hamatani (1970), they suggest (pp. 203-4) that Stiliger smaragdinus should be assigned to Hermaeina smaragdina for its denticulated teeth and diaulic genitalia. But, Hermaeina has been changed to Aplysiopsis, right? So, would this make this species Aplysiopsis smaragdina (or A. smaragdinus)? [Sorry, I do not know the gender of these genera.] Or, is this species still Stiliger smaragdinus? Any thoughts by you or other readers would be much appreciated! Thank you.

• Baba, K. & Hamatani, I. 1970. Occurrences Of Specimens Presumably Identifiable With Stiliger ornatus At Seto, Kii, Middle Japan, Opisthobranchia Sacoglossa. Publ. Seto Mar. Biol. Lab., 18(3): 1970. 199-206.

Cordially,
Cynthia

trowbric@ucs.orst.edu

Trowbridge, C., 2001 (Jul 24) Stiliger smaragdinus in Japan. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4888

Dear Cynthia,
Glad you find the Forum useful and sorry about lack of measurements on the S. smaragdinus page. Although its a great advantage being able to work from home, sometimes I forget to add a detailthe next morning at the museum. I have added some measurements to the photos. It is indeed a relatively big sacoglossan growing to at least 50mm long here in Australia.

Concerning its genus, you are right it has been everywhere - in Stiliger, Aplysiopsis, Hermaeina and Ercolania. Kathe Jensen (1996,1997) - has it in "Stiliger" with inverted commas and says she is preparing a description of a new genus for it.

• Jensen, K.R. (1996) Phylogenetic systematics and classification of the Sacoglossa (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B 351: 91-122.
• Jensen, K.R. (1997) Sacoglossa (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia) from the Darwin Harbour Area, Northern Territory, Australia. In: Proceedings of the Six International Marine Biological Workshop. The marine flora and fauna of Darwin Harbour, Northern Territory, Australia. (Eds: Hanley,JR; Caswell,G; Megirian,D; Larson,HK) Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory and the Australian Marine Sciences Association: Darwin, Australia, Darwin, 163-186.

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Jul 24). Comment on Stiliger smaragdinus in Japan by Cynthia Trowbridge. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4888

Factsheet

Stiliger smaragdinus

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