Aplysia dactylomela from the Canary Ids

December 5, 2001
From: Simon and Jill Warwick

During a visit to the Canary Ids we found at least four of the above sea hares located in rock pools on the island of Fuerteventura (on the rocky shore west of the village of El Cotillo in the North-west of the island) on 16 April 2001. Photographs taken and ID confirmed from this website last night!

Rock pools varied in depth (two feet at most) but the sea hares were in the shallower sections much closer to the surface. This photo was taken from above the surface so the picture is far from perfect but hopefully good enough to ID. We assume they are reasonably widely distributed throughout the Canaries?

Many congratulations on the Sea Slug Forum, it has inspired us to look more closely in the future!

Best wishes
Simon and Jill Warwick

simon@swland.co.uk

Warwick, S. & J., 2001 (Dec 5) Aplysia dactylomela from the Canary Ids. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5768

Dear Simn & Jill,
Thanks for the record. A. dactyomela is known from the tropical and warm temperate parts of the Indo-West Pacific and the west Atlantic [Caribbean to Brazil]. In the eastern Atlantic it is known from the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands and Ghana but apparently not from the Mediterranean or the European mainland (Cervera et al, 1988).

As you will see in the Forum, the Atlantic form appears to have a much paler, nearly white, background colour than in the Indo-West Pacific form. In fact an animal from the Canary Ids, very similar in colour to the one in your photo, was described as a distinct species, Aplysia ocellata, by D'Orbigny in 1839. However it is generally thought the the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific animals should be considered a single species.

• Cervera, J.L., Templado, J., Garcia-G¢mez, J.C., Ballesteros, M., Ortea, J.C., Garcia, F.J., Ros, J. & Luque, A.A. (1988) Catalogo actualizado y comentado de los opistobranquios (Mollusca, Gastropoda) de la Peninsula Iberica, Baleares y Canarias, con algunas referencias a Ceuta y la Isla de Alboran. (Annotated and updated Checklist of Opisthobranchs (Mollusca, Gastropoda) from Iberian Peninsula, Balearic and Canary Islands, with some references to Ceuta and Alboran Island). Iberus (Suppl. 1): 83pp.
• d'Orbigny, A. (1839) Mollusques, echinodermes, foraminiferes et polypiers, recueillis aux Iles Canaries. [In] Webb, P.B., & Berthelot, S., 1835-50. Historie naturelle des Iles Canaries, Paris, 2 (2) Zoologie, 37-45.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Dec 5). Comment on Aplysia dactylomela from the Canary Ids by Simon and Jill Warwick. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5768

Factsheet

Aplysia dactylomela

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