Flabellina verrucosa from Massachusetts

August 18, 2007
From: Charlotte Richardson

Hi, Bill -

Locally we call these the chocolate variety of the red-gill (Flabellina pellucida and related species). Paul Young and I found this one on the wreck of the Chester Poling, at the entrance to Gloucester Harbor (Massachusetts) on July 29th, at a depth of about 85 feet. These animals look like what locals call red-gills, but they tend to be larger (this one a bit more than 3 cm long), and, as you can see, the cerata are brown instead of red, and very numerous. The wreck is heavily overgrown with pink-hearted
hydroid colonies, which may be this nudibranch's food (it is for the usually red-gills - they are usually seen on the hydroid colonies, and lay their egg ribbons on them). Interestingly, this wreck used to have far more metridium anemones and far fewer hydroids than it does now, perhaps a sign of warmer water temperatures. At sites south of Cape Cod where the hydroids used to be very common twenty years ago, they are rare now, and so are the red-gills which used to be quite numerous there.

Locality: Gloucester Harbor, 85', Massachusetts, Atlantic Ocean, 29 July 2007, wreck on sand bottom. Length: 3-4 cm. Photographer: Charlotte Richardson.

Charlotte Richardson.

clr@underwater.org

Richardson, C., 2007 (Aug 18) Flabellina verrucosa from Massachusetts. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20468

Dear Charlotte,
Unfortunately colour of the digestive gland duct in the cerata is not always a useful character because it can change depending on the colour of their most recent meal. I am pretty sure this animal is Flabellina verrucosa rather than F. pellucida.  However it doesn't have a clear white line down the rhinophores and oral tentacles, and I can't see if it has a white line down the dorsal midline of the 'tail', so I could be wrong. Hopefully an Atlantic expert can put us straight.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2007 (Aug 18). Comment on Flabellina verrucosa from Massachusetts by Charlotte Richardson. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/20468

Factsheet

Flabellina verrucosa

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