Re: Food of Marionia blainvillea

October 2, 2009
From: Dominique Horst

Concerning message #5510:

Hi Bill,

This is the first time I have seen a Marionia blainvillea crawling on the gorgonian Leptogorgia sarmentosa. It was probably feeding on it, but very few polyps were out.

Locality: Cagnes, 30 m, France, Mediterranean sea, 12 June 2009, muddy. Length: 35 mm. Photographer: Dominique Horst.

Kind regards,
Dominique

dominique.horst@wanadoo.fr

Horst, D., 2009 (Oct 2) Re: Food of Marionia blainvillea. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22558

Thanks Dom,

I've cropped your photos a bit so we get a better view of the nudibranch, but in your original photos there were a lot of polyps out away from the Marionia. Sensibly, the gorgonian polyps can retract when they detect danger. Some gorgonian feeding nudibranchs eat the polyps and the basal tissue, which would mean that retracting the polyps wouldn't be much use, but this species of Marionia seems to daintily eat just the polyps.

In the upper photo I can see what looks like an old nudibranch egg ribbon spiralled around the gorgonian branch [see close-up alongside]. I suspect this belongs to Marionia. If so, it would mean the nudibranch has been on the colony for some time, which also suggests it is eating the polyps.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2009 (Oct 2). Comment on Re: Food of Marionia blainvillea by Dominique Horst. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22558

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