Mating of different species
October 1, 2002
From: Gillian Elliott
Dear Bill
I work as a biologist on Mantanani Island in the South China Sea off the coast of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
Recently I spotted a pair of sea slugs mating that were of different species of Chromodoris. Has this ever been recorded before? How could it happen...faulty chemoreception systems? Attached is the picture of this event - seen at 10m depth at
1600hrs.
I look forward to hearing from you
Gillian Elliott
gillyelliott@yahoo.com
Elliott, G. , 2002 (Oct 1) Mating of different species. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/7664Thanks Gillian,
From the position of these two animals I don't think they are mating. Although during mating their right sides need to be together, as their genital openings are just behind the rhinophores, their heads would need to be much closer together for mating to be physically possible. I suspect in this case that the upper one [on the right] is just crawling past. The question of interspecific mating is quite interesting but can lead to rather circular discussions. One way we tend to define a 'species' is to see what it will mate with. In the chromodorids there are problem groups which are either a group of very similarly coloured but distinct species, or one species with a number of distinct colour morphs. I tend to think that if you find two colour 'morphs' mating, then that is an indication that they are a single species. However I guess it could be argued that it is evidence of inter-specific mating behaviour. In the Forum, I tried to raise this very question but no one wants to discuss it. I posted a photo of two colour 'forms' of Hypselodoris bullocki mating. One was a fairly 'typical' colour, and the other has recently been described as a distinct species.
Concerning the identity of your two animal. The lower animal is Chromodoris annae and the upper one [on right] is a species or 'colour form' which I am calling Chromodoris cf. colemani, not because I think it is that species, but because it looks quite like it.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman
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