Re: Haminoea cyanomarginata from Greece

October 17, 2005
From: M. Baki Yokes

Dear Bill,
Concerning message #14998:
Haminoea cyanomarginata has become abundant on the southwestern coasts of Turkey. In some regions tens of them can be observed during a dive.

Locality: Uc Adalar, Antalya, Turkey. Mediterranean. Depth: 24 m. Length: ~1 cm. 15 June 2004. Rocky bottom. Photographer: M. Baki Yokes

Here I have attached a series of photos of a couple pictured during a such meeting time. Most probably I witnessed the mating ceremony of this species. There were many of them, distributed all over the rocky bottom, and all of them were in couples, and each couple were showing a stange trailing behaviour, that is the leading individual is slowly moving on an almost straight pathway and the pursuing one hurries to catch the leader, moving on the exact trail of it, most probably by following the chemicals left behind, and when it catches, it tries to get under the leader and elevate it. Then the leader makes a quick turn on a vertical direction leaving its partner behind. After a few seconds of halt the pursuer follows the new route to catch the leader again. All the couples I have seen in that dive showed the same kind of behaviour, suggesting a common mating ceremony in this species.

Best wishes
Baki

bakiyokes@turk.net

Yokes, M.B., 2005 (Oct 17) Re: Haminoea cyanomarginata from Greece. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15015

Dear Baki,
Very interesting. Certainly many opisthobranchs tend to follow the mucous trails of their kind, and some predators follow the trails of potential prey, but I can't say I have seen or heard of this process of 'nudging' under the lead animal. It will be interesting to hear of other similar observations.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Oct 17). Comment on Re: Haminoea cyanomarginata from Greece by M. Baki Yokes. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/15015

Factsheet

Haminoea cyanomarginata

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