Pteraeolidia - brooding eggs

June 2, 2000
From: Akos Lumnitzer

Hi Bill .... again!

I may be blind, but there don't seem to be any Pteraeolidia ianthina on the Forum. Have they been renamed?

I believe there could be two distinct species; one, the bluey purple colour form, with very evenly spread out cerata and the dull, brown-grey ones with bunched cerata. Could that be a possibility?

Here are three photos from around Sydney [New South Wales, Australia] for you.

UPPER RIGHT: Shark Pt, Clovelly in 16m.
LOWER LEFT: Kurnell in 12 m of water.
LOWER RIGHT: North Head, Port Jackson in 20m water. Animal is about 10cm long

Regards

Akos

dna72@softhome.net

Lumnitzer, A., 2000 (Jun 2) Pteraeolidia - brooding eggs. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2489

Dear Akos,
Far be it for to comment on your sight but there are two pages for Pteraeolidia ianthina on the Forum. Now that the Species List is getting so large a good way to find species is to use the SEARCH button at the top and bottom of every page.

The different shapes and colours found in Pteraeolidia certainly suggest the possibility of more than one species but I have looked at material from all around the Indo-West Pacific and can't find even one consistent anatomical character to separate them. One reason for the colour differences, and perhaps the length of the cerata, relates to their symbiosis with photosynthetic plant cells (zooxanthellae) which is described on Page 1 and on the Solar powered nudibranch Page. Also look at the messages on those pages and below yours on this page.

One particularly interesting phenomenon you have captured in the upper right photo is the habit of this species to cluster in groups around a collection of egg masses which I have arrowed and enlarged in the inset. All observers who have seen this phenomenon in New South Wales find them on the exposed tops of large submerged boulders in 10-15 meters. The boulders are usually covered in encrusting coralline algae (which shows there is enough light for photosynthesis) and the group of Pteraeolidia usually stay with the egg masses for at least 2-3 weeks. At this size they are feeding on the large solitary hydroid Ralpharia sp. so they must either leave the egg masses at night to feed some distance away, starve, or else rely on the products of photosynthesis.

Thanks for the interesting photos. The bottom left photo shows an intermediate sized animal by a colony of colonial hydroids on which it is possibly feeding.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 2000 (Jun 2). Comment on Pteraeolidia - brooding eggs by Akos Lumnitzer. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2489

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