More on the unusual eggs of Cuthona lagunae

June 6, 2005
From: Jeff Goddard

Hi Bill,
Here is a photomicrograph of an uncleaved zygote (fertilized egg) from an egg mass laid by the specimen pictured in my previous message [#13958] on Cuthona lagunae. It shows the unusually large polar bodies previously described from a population of this species from Point St. George in northernmost California. I have also observed these large polar bodies in eggs laid by C. lagunae from the Santa Barbara channel, so they appear to be characteristic of the species. The zygote pictured was about 95 microns in diameter.

These polar bodies are eventually ingested by the embryonic veligers, and no trace of them remains by the time the veligers hatch. The polar bodies of all the other opisthobranchs from the northeast Pacific Ocean that I have observed are typically only a few microns in diameter and contain little or no yolk, and I don't know of any other example of such large polar bodies in an opisthobranch.

Locality: Montana de Oro, San Luis Obispo County, California, USA. Intertidal.  Egg, 95 microns in diameter, from adult 7 mm long. 28 May 2005
Rocky shore, low intertidal pool. Photographer: Jeff Goddard

  • Goddard, J.H.R. (2004) Developmental mode in benthic opisthobranch molluscs from the northeast Pacific Ocean: feeding in a sea of plenty. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 82: 1954–1968.

Best wishes,
Jeff

goddard@lifesci.ucsb.edu

Goddard, J.H.R., 2005 (Jun 6) More on the unusual eggs of Cuthona lagunae. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/13959

Dear Jeff,
Your paper is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the NE Pacific fauna. It gives us an interesting insight into their embryology and larval development.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Jun 6). Comment on More on the unusual eggs of Cuthona lagunae by Jeff Goddard. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/13959

Factsheet

Cuthona lagunae

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