Tritonia hamnerorum in Bermuda

August 1, 2005
From: Thad Murdoch


On July 14th our research team found an outbreak population of hundreds of Tritonia hamnerorum on a small patch reef in the lagoon in Bermuda. Neighbouring patch reefs were also affected but so far it appears the outbreak is localized, as sites over 10 km away were free of nudibranchs. Specimens were collected for microscopic photography and also were stored in the Bermuda Natural History Museum.

Roughly 50% of all sea fans on the patch were already dead and about 1/2 remaining were infested with the nudibranch.

Photo B: Heavily grazed sea fan coasted in tuft algae in Bermuda
Photo C: Juvenile Tritonia hamnerorum aprox 3mm long on sea fan

Locality: Devil's Flats, Bermuda, Atlantic Ocean. Depth: 2 m. Length: 5 - 15 mm. 14th July 2005, 20th July 2005. On sea fans only, on a 10-m long patch reef within a large expanse of patch reefs within the lagoon
Photographer: Thad Murdoch, James Woods

Thad Murdoch
[Bermuda Reef Ecosystem Assessment and Mapping (BREAM) Project.
Bermuda Biodiversity Programme. Bermuda Zoological Society and Bermuda Government Dept. of Conservation Services]

tjmurdoch@gov.bm

Murdoch, T.J.T., 2005 (Aug 1) Tritonia hamnerorum in Bermuda. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14424

Dear Thad,
Thanks for this interesting observation. This is quite a usual behaviour for many nudibranchs. Distribution s very patchy, often occurring as a very localised, concentrated infestation. It seems as though they arrive as a larval swarm, which settles out of the plankton on to their food organism, where they live, breed and die. In most cases it is the prey organism that triggers the larvae to settle out of the plankton and metamorphose. It's bad luck for the prey colonies, but fortunately the overall nudibranch population is relatively small so the overall prey population is more than capable of withstanding the effects of nudibranch predation.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Aug 1). Comment on Tritonia hamnerorum in Bermuda by Thad Murdoch. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14424

Factsheet

Tritonia hamnerorum

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