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

• Published in: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
• Main Author: Goddard, Jeffrey H.R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2010
• Subjects: Aquatic Science; North West Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002531541000010x; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S002531541000010X

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).