Chromodoris hamiltoni? from South Africa

May 1, 2008
From: Sylvain Le Bris


Concerning message #20569:

Hi Bill,

Are these species color variation of Chromodoris hamiltoni?

Locality: Sodwana Bay, 15 m, South Africa, Indian Ocean, April 2008. Photographer: Sylvain Le Bris.

Regards
Sylvain

lebris.sylvain@gmail.com

Le Bris, S., 2008 (May 1) Chromodoris hamiltoni? from South Africa. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21555

Dear Sylvain,

Yes these are all forms of C. hamiltoni. In an earlier message [#20568] I mentioned how we had no direct evidence on what sponge this species ate. I suggested it was probably a bright red-orange species of Negombata because that genus had a molecule called latrunculin which was also found in C. hamiltoni. The full story is that there is a quite unrelated group of grey-black sponges in the genus Petrosaspongia and possibly Semitaspongia which also have this chemical.

One of your photos shows a bright red sponge, and another shows a grey-black sponge almost completely hidden under a layer of sand. I can't say they are feeding on either of the sponges but it is the closest we have come so far. If C. hamiltoni does eat both sponges it would be an exciting parallel to the the look-alike C. quadricolor which we now know does precisely that [see message #20150]. So at the risk of sounding like a squeaky wheel, any eating observations would be very welcome.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2008 (May 1). Comment on Chromodoris hamiltoni? from South Africa by Sylvain Le Bris. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/21555

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