Flabellina salmonacea with swollen oral tentacles.

March 6, 2003
From: Alan Shepard

Bill -
Though you might find this photo of Flabellina salmonacea a bit interesting. The oral tentacles look to be swollen quite a bit. I assume this occured during a feeding session. Do nudibranchs ever get used to being stung?

The photo was taken at Folly Cove in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA in approximately 7 meteres of water. The nudibranch was approximately 50mm long.

Alan Shepard
Tolland, CT, USA

alan.chepard@snet.net

Shepard, A., 2003 (Mar 6) Flabellina salmonacea with swollen oral tentacles.. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/9315

Thanks Alan,
An interesting question. I don't know if this has been studied in any detail but from my experience, aeolids always seem to treat their food items with some care when feeding - and certainly retract quickly when apparently stung. Concerning 'swelling'. A swollen tentacle like this is rather different from us having a swollen appendage after a sting. In our case it is the cells of the skin and the underlying tissue which swell as an allergic reaction. In the case of a slug the skin is in many ways just a blood-filled bag which contains the body organs. As they have no rigid skeleton the nudibranch's shape can change much like a water-filled balloon. What seems to have happened here is the head has retracted - perhaps after being stung - and forced the blood from the body cavity up into the cerata and the tentacles causing them to inflate. They are definitely swollen but in quite a different way from how we would swell after being stung.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Mar 6). Comment on Flabellina salmonacea with swollen oral tentacles. by Alan Shepard. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/9315

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