Aeolidiella alderi + eggs

August 10, 2003
From: Marina Poddubetskaia

Dear Bill,
During one dive in Cerbere I turned over a rock and ... what a lovely surprise ! I saw an eolid 'sleeping' near an egg-mass. The first photo was taken at this moment.

I think this animal is Aeolidiella alderi because of its whitish collar well visible in the second photo. The egg-ribbon seems to belong to an eolid species and its large eggs fits the absence of larval stage in Aeolidiella alderi.
Moreover, the eolids hidden under rocks are uncommon in Cerbere and the only other species I saw hidden there was Facelina annulicornis. For all these reasons I assume this egg-ribbon was laid by this animal.

Date: July 13, 2003
Location: Cerbere, France, Mediterranean coast
Site: Les Chambres
Depth: 6m
Size while crawling: 25mm
Photos: Marina Poddubetskaia - Nembro website

Best wishes,
Marina.

nembro@nembro.info

Poddubetskaia, M. , 2003 (Aug 10) Aeolidiella alderi + eggs. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10489

Thanks Marina,
I agree with your identification of the slug. Picton & Morrow (1994) describe the egg mass of this species as being 'a convoluted spiral thread containing large eggs' so there's a good possibility that this is its egg mass
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Aug 10). Comment on Aeolidiella alderi + eggs by Marina Poddubetskaia. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10489

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