Egg-laying Trapania benni from S.E. Australia (2)

January 19, 2002
From: John Chuk

Dear Bill,
The shape of the egg-mass produced by the Trapania benni specimens was rather difficult to determine, as the egg ribbon was only 1-1.5mm in diameter. Underwater it appeared to be cylindrical but close examination of the slides I took does suggest that it is somewhat flattened.

I watched the specimens egg-laying for about 20 minutes and one of them did produce a spiral ribbon of about one and a quarter whorls on the blade of a small red alga but then it ran out of space and continued to lay the ribbon in a seemingly haphazard manner. This may suggest that the irregular nature of the substrate chosen to lay the eggs on has determined the resultant shape of the egg-mass, which, on a more even surface, may have had a more spiral arrangement. In this case any pattern to the egg-mass is complicated, by having two specimens laying eggs at the same time!

Best wishes,
John.

jchul@giant.net.au

Chuk, J., 2002 (Jan 19) Egg-laying Trapania benni from S.E. Australia (2). [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/6042

Thanks John,
Bill Rudman

Factsheet

Trapania benni

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