Re: Alderia modesta living sublittorally in Holland

November 19, 2009
From: Skip Pierce

Concerning message #22783:

Hi Bill
I'm sitting here berating myself for not taking a picture of them, but this message reminded me to report to you the reappearance last spring of Alderia modesta in Woods Hole. I have been collecting Elysia chlorotica for decades in the Woods Hole area and, for many years, we routinely encountered a few A. modesta in the same marshes as E. chlorotica - both eat Vaucheria.

Other than noticing the A. modesta, we never paid much attention to them until colleague Pat Krug, who works on A. modesta as you know, called me, asked where to get them in Woods Hole, and then could not find any where I confidently sent him. I, of course, blamed Pat, but when I went to look, not only couldn't I find them either, but we have not seen any there in 20 years of casual looking. This spring, my collector, who lives in Woods Hole, went out to get us some E. chlorotica, which, unusually, he failed at, but instead he sent 3 or 4 tiny green slugs, which turned out to be A. modesta, which I immediately sent to Pat.

I have just returned to Tampa from a 2 month sojourn to Woods Hole (probably the last sabbatical of my career) and we collected E. chlorotica there a couple of weeks ago, and again found no A. modesta. Now, they are pretty small, but we looked especially for them in the Vaucheria mats. I am not at all sure what these observations mean - maybe only that A. modesta is just an occasional visitor to Woods Hole, maybe is only around in the spring, maybe is harbinger of climate change, maybe we just missed them - or something else - but here's another note for your distribution list - and I'll remember to photograph them if we ever see them again.

Skip


pierce@cas.usf.edu

Pierce, S. K., 2009 (Nov 19) Re: Alderia modesta living sublittorally in Holland. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22803

Thanks Skip,

For such an iconic nothern hemisphere saltmarsh species I am surprised we have photos on the forum from onkly one locality. You are not the only one with regrets about not photographing a common species before it became 'uncommon'

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2009 (Nov 19). Comment on Re: Alderia modesta living sublittorally in Holland by Skip Pierce. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/22803

Factsheet

Alderia modesta

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