Re: Is Elysia viridis a single species?

August 15, 1999
From: Cynthia Trowbridge

Dear Kathe,

Thank you for your response!!! I have been looking in vain for your e-mail all week so I am delighted that you saw my message.

I am familiar with your electrophoretic work, and it supports my view that Elysia viridis is a single species, at least in the N. Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Ref Terry's (1987) report of Elysia viridis in South Africa, in the update of his book (published in Wayne Ellis' Australasian newsletter - Nov 1998), Terry has shifted E. viridis to Elysia sp.

But what about the record from China? I have just ordered that through inter-library loan the paper by Tchang-Si (1934). Have you ever looked at that description and/or specimens? I note that you did not include it in your 1985 Hong Kong paper.

Regarding my initial question, if body size, body color (from retained chloroplasts), and radular features are fully, or at least largely, inducible by diet AND if larval attributes (egg size, larval shell size, developmental rate) are all similar, then can I validly conclude that a sacoglossan/ascoglossan is a single species? At what point is variation species-level variation and what level is it phenotypic plasticity? As an ecologist, I would be keen to understand how the decision is actually made. I will need to shift over to private email (sorry Bill) for more detail.

Thanks in advance for your sharing your experience.

Cordially,

Cynthia
Oregon State University

trowbric@bcc.orst.edu

Trowbridge, C., 1999 (Aug 15) Re: Is Elysia viridis a single species?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1191

Dear Cynthia,
Sorry if I suggested I was opposed to private emails. Of course I'm not. I just think its extremely valuable for us all to keep in touch with each other and share our ideas and activities. If someone asks a question on the Forum, or sends a message, we are all waiting for the answer. If answers are sent privately just to the source, all the rest of us miss out. I have found your messages, and Kathe's very interesting - the sort of thing you hear in question time at a scientific conference. I personally find listening-in to these sort of conversations both interesting and educational.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Factsheet

Elysia viridis

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