Re: Risbecia pulchella at rest

February 17, 2009
From: Marcel Tanke


Note added 18 Feb 2009: The species in this message is Risbecia tryoni not R. pulchella. [See message #22262].

Concerning message #22255:

Hi Bill,
Maybe the "cuddling" is, like trailing, typical behaviour for Risbecia pulchella? The two in the pictures attached were moving, stopped and started "cuddling". I watched them a couple of minutes, they definitively were not mating during that time. But they continued moving over each other.
The pictures were taken at a 50 seconds interval.

Locality: Anilao, 10-15 m, Philippines, 13 July 2008. Length: max 4 cm. Photographer: Marcel Tanke.

Best regards,
Marcel

marceltanke@cs.com

Tanke, M.A., 2009 (Feb 17) Re: Risbecia pulchella at rest. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22261

Dear Marcel,

Thanks for this quick response. Perhaps its some form of 'foreplay' preceding mating or a way to check if the partner is mature, or maybe they are just an affectionate species. It would be good to get some more observations.

In Valda Fraser's message, which you refer to, I made mention of the sponge her animals were on. Amazingly, I think your animals are on the same or a related species, which sometimes forms flat layers and other times a cup-shaped colony. As I mentioned in her message, it is not the type of sponge I would expect this species to eat, but finding R. pulchella associated with it in two oceans is quite interesting. The sponge looks to me like a Phyllospongia [Fam. Thorectidae], but I will need to get that checked by an expert. We only have records of Risbecia  feeding on dysideid sponges, such as Euryspongia [see message #17602], but as we only have a few records at present, their food choice may be a little more complicated than we thought. It goes without saying that more records of 'cuddling' and association with this sort of sponge are very welcome

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2009 (Feb 17). Comment on Re: Risbecia pulchella at rest by Marcel Tanke. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22261

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