Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T17:23:30.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Palio dubia (Nudibranchia: Doridina) from the north-west Atlantic Ocean: is its morphology at hatching consistent with settlement one day later?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2010

Jeffrey H.R. Goddard*
Affiliation:
Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6150
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: J.H.R. Goddard, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6150 email: [email protected]

Abstract

Hamel et al. (2008) reported that veliger larvae of the nudibranch gastropod Palio dubia settled 1 to 3 days after hatching and that metamorphosis commenced shortly thereafter. This is an anomalously short larval period for a nudibranch described as having planktotrophic development. I examined the embryonic development and hatching larvae of P. dubia collected intertidally from Maine, USA. Veliger larvae with shells 120 μm long and lacking eyespots and propodia developed in 7 days at 20°C from eggs averaging 69 μm in diameter. Their size and morphology were typical of planktotrophic nudibranchs known to have minimum larval periods of weeks to months, and the available evidence does not suggest any other mode of development exists in P. dubia. The larval period of P. dubia is likely an order of magnitude longer than reported by Hamel et al. (2008).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bonar, D.B. (1978) Morphogenesis at metamorphosis in opisthobranch molluscs. In Chia, F.-S. and Rice, M.E. (eds) Settlement and metamorphosis of marine invertebrate larvae. New York: Elsevier, pp. 177196.Google Scholar
Chia, F.-S. and Koss, R. (1988) Induction of settlement and metamorphosis of the veliger larvae of the nudibranch, Onchidoris bilamellata. International Journal of Invertebrate Reproduction and Development 14, 5370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, K.B. (1975) Nudibranch life cycles in the northwest Atlantic and their relationship to the ecology of fouling communities. Helgoländer Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen 27, 2869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehnel, P.A. and Kong, D.C. (1979) The effect of temperature on developmental rates in the nudibranch Cadlina luteomarginata. Canadian Journal of Zoology 57, 18351844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goddard, J.H.R. (2004) Developmental mode in opisthobranchs molluscs from the northeast Pacific Ocean: feeding in a sea of plenty. Canadian Journal of Zoology 82, 19541968.Google Scholar
Hadfield, M.G. and Miller, S.E. (1987) On developmental patterns of opisthobranchs. American Malacological Bulletin 5, 197214.Google Scholar
Hadfield, M.G. and Switzer-Dunlap, M. (1984) Opisthobranchs. In Tompa, A.S., Verdonk, N.H. and van den Biggelar, J.A.M. (eds) Reproduction. New York: Academic Press, pp. 209350. [The Mollusca, Volume 7.]Google Scholar
Hamel, J.-F., Sargent, P. and Mercier, A. (2008) Diet, reproduction, settlement and growth of Palio dubia (Nudibranchia: Polyceridae) in the north-west Atlantic. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 88, 365374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, L.G. (1975) Studies on the life history of two coral-eating nudibranchs of the genus Phestilla. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 149, 539550.Google Scholar
Hoegh-Guldberg, O. and Pearse, J.S. (1995) Temperature, food availability, and the development of marine invertebrate larvae. American Zoologist 35, 415425.Google Scholar
Krug, P.J. (1998) Poecilogony in an estuarine opisthobranch: planktotrophy, lecithotrophy, and mixed clutches in a population of the sacoglossan, Alderia modesta. Marine Biology (Berlin) 132, 483494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martínez-Pita, I., Sánchez-España, A.I. and García, F.J. (2006) Some aspects of the reproductive biology of two Atlantic species of Polycera (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 86, 391399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perron, F.E. and Turner, R.D. (1977) Development, metamorphosis, and natural history of the nudibranch Doridella obscura Verrill (Corambidae: Opisthobranchia). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 27, 171185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlesinger, A., Goldshmid, R., Hadfield, M.G., Kramarsky-Winter, E. and Loya, Y. (2009) Laboratory culture of the aeolid nudibranch Spurilla neapolitana (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia): life history aspects. Marine Biology 156, 753761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sisson, C.G. (2002) Dichotomous life history patterns for the nudibranch Dendronotus frondosus (Ascanius, 1774) in the Gulf of Maine. Veliger 45, 290298.Google Scholar
Sisson, C.G. (2005) Life history dynamics and biogeography of a nudibranch with contrasting developmental modes: a hypothesis for the evolution of larval types. Journal of Natural History 39, 17191733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strathmann, M.F. (1987) Reproduction and development of marine invertebrates of the northern Pacific coast. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, T.E. (1976) Biology of opisthobranch molluscs, Volume I. London: The Ray Society.Google Scholar
Todd, C.D. and Doyle, R.W. (1981) Reproductive strategies of marine benthic invertebrates: a settlement-timing hypothesis. Marine Ecology Progress Series 4, 7583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar