Lomanotus vermiformis from Florida, USA

Dear Linda,
Thanks for this find. It is almost certainly the same species that was described from Florida by Clark & Goetzfried (1976) as Lomanotus stauberi. Later Gosliner & Bertsch (1985) reported it from the Pacific coast of Panama.. However Willan (1988) and Garcia-Gomez et al. (1990) consider L. stauberi to be the same as  L. vermiformis which they consider has a wide distribution in the tropical Indo-west Pacific, eastern Pacific and western Atlantic. The development of 'cerata' in this species seems somewhat variable. I am pretty sure you animal is on the aglaopheniid hydroid Lytocarpus philippinus, which is the usual food of L. vermiformis. Lomanotus stauberi is also reported from this hydroid, which seems another justification for consdering it to be a synonym of L. vermiformis.  As you mention, this animal is often found in a sticky mucous cocoon as is well illustrated in two of your photos. In the middle two photos you can also see an egg ribbon, which I presume belongs to Lomanotus.

• Clark, K.B. & Goetzfried, A, (1976). Lomanotus stauberi, a new dendronotacean nudibranch from central Florida (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia). Bulletin of Marine Science, 26(4): 474-478.
• Garcia-Gomez, J.C. & Lopez-Gonzalez, P.J., Garcia, F.J, (1990). Lomanotus barlettai, a new species of nudibranch mollusk from the Iberian littoral, with remarks on world species of the genus. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 68: 2299-2305.
• Gosliner, T.M, & Bertsch, H, (1985). Records and morphology of Lomanotus stauberi Clark & Goetzfried, 1976, from the Panamic Pacific. The Veliger 27(4): 397-405.
• Willan, R.C, (1988). The taxonomy of two host-specific, cryptic dendronotoid nudibranch species (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Australia including a new species description. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 94: 39-63.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman