Re: Thecacera pennigera from Woods Hole

November 25, 2003
From: Alan Shepard

Bill –
Concerning your query about references. I found two references to Thecacera pennigera being present in Florida. The first was on the web site of the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Florida. Their web site can be found at:
http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLSpec/Tspecies.htm

The second was on the Western Atlantic Gastropod Database site found at:
http://erato.acnatsci.org/wasp/search.php/10658

I had contacted Dr. Larry Harris at the University of New Hampshire and he did indicate it was indeed a first for our area.

The dive site is in the area of some heavy shipping. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's vessels and U.S. Coast Guard vessels are all docked nearby not to mention local ferries and numerous pleasure craft so I wouldn't be surprised if the appearance was the result of some hitchhiking.

There are always species of Bugula in our waters however prior to the recent dive I had never seen an entire dive site so covered in them. I'm heading back to the site to hopefully get some better photographs of the creature.
Best wishes,
Alan Shepard

alan.chepard@snet.net

Shepard, A., 2003 (Nov 25) Re: Thecacera pennigera from Woods Hole. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11468

Thanks Alan,
I see the Western Atlantic Gastropod Database has:
Distribution: USA: East Florida; Brazil: Sao Paulo.
References: Er. Marcus (1957) SM; Platts (1985) E; Thompson (1988) ds; Clark (1995) NW

I guess that means the Platts, Thompson, and Clark references refer to records from Florida. However Platts (1985) only includes records from the North Sea region so I don't know why its included in the database. It is possible that Kerry Clark's paper is relevant but I don't have a copy available. If anyone does it would be interesting to see if it mentions Thecacera from the Florida. Unfortunately I can't track down their Thompson reference:

• Clark, K. B. 1995. Rheophilic/oligotrophic lagoonal communities: throught the eyes of slugs (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia). Bulletin of Marine Science, 57: 242-251
• Platts, E. 1985. An annotated list of the North Atlantic Opisthobranchia (excluding Thecosomata and Gymnosomata): a tribute to Dr Henning Lemche. Ophelia, Supplement 2: 150-170.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Nov 25). Comment on Re: Thecacera pennigera from Woods Hole by Alan Shepard. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11468

Factsheet

Thecacera pennigera

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