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Eubranchus farrani
(Alder & Hancock, 1844)
Tamsyn MAnn Lots of these on eel grass in Brixham today... Eubranchus farrani I think. Not seen one these colours before. Most of them were orange today.
Terry Griffiths E.pallidus Tam.
Tamsyn MAnn Thank you :)
Terry Griffiths The white dots on the body,some around here also have red patches going down the back of the body which them makes them look more like the northern ones.
Terry Griffiths One with red patches.
Brendan Oonk One other clear difference between E.farrani and E.pallidus is the longer rhinophores on E.pallidus.
The ceratal arrangement differs too.
Laura Shearer Hey,
I found this nudibranch on the Farne Islands on the Northumberland coast. I am unsure of ID so could you guys check it out please? Although I am leaning towards Limicia clavigera, the rhinophores were rounded not lamellate and the orange spots were not raised. It also looks nothing like the other Limicia specimens I have seen around here...
It was about 6mm in length and was found on a colonising plate so cannot be associated with any hydroids...
Any thoughts would be appreciated, Laura
João Pedro SilvaEubranchus farrani with damaged cerata.
David Kipling Yes, as you say the orange spots are pigment spots on the back, not the raised clubs of Limacia.
Tamsyn MAnn I think its a Eubranchus ferrani, but I hadn't seen these colours before. Not the greatest picture as dusk, awful vis and no flash!!! Haha! Just gotta get in the water!
João Pedro Silva I think you're right: Eubranchus farrani
Tamsyn MAnn Have you see those colours before?
João Pedro Silva Well, it varies quite a bit. Those I've seen had less transparent body and wider pimgented yellow area on the cerata. But I've also seen photos of individuals ranging from transparent to pitch black body.
Jim Anderson This is a colour variation we see regularly - http://www.nudibranch.org/Scottish%20Nudibranchs/html/eubranchus-farrani-15.html
Tony Gilbert I've mostly seen the variation shown by Jim, but there was a similar one to yours, in Scotland that we found,as we were launching the SMB...which is as transparent as yours I think:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyjgilbert-images/5083852807/in/set-72157624688589439
Klas Malmberg Aquatilis This is at nudie from Norway, Gulen. Identified as Eubranchus farrani. Do you agree? This form with the white pigment on the head is quite common in Gulen.
João Pedro Silva Not E. farrani, at least not like any of the several variations I've seen. Not sure what it is, though. I'd consider Cuthona sp.
Klas Malmberg Aquatilis Im not convinced myself as you can guess of that this is a E. farrani. It has typical white pigment on the rhinofores and on the tentakles. It also has the scattered white pigment on the cerata that makes it special - but... I dont know what it is! Sometimes it has a couple of red small pigmentdots on the dorsum but its lacking in this picture.
João Pedro Silva If this had red marking I'd go for Cuthona foliata... but I don't see them here.
Brendan Oonk If it would have had red bands on the rhinofores it could be Cuthona amoena.......?
João Pedro Silva Brendan, I think you're right. It could be C. amoena. The brown bands on the rhinophores may be very subtle: http://www.seaslugforum.net/message/22029
Tony Gilbert It does have a similar colouration to Eubranchus pallidus but I think its C.amoena as wel.
George Brown Is this Aeolidiella sanguinea? Eilean nan Ron on Scotland's north coast. Found crawling across the top of a rock pinnacle on the islands west coast.
João Pedro Silva Actually I'd suggest a colour variation of Eubranchus farrani.
João Pedro SilvaAeolidiella sanguinea: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6974166731/
George Brown Thank you João. Makes sense. I've not seen one that colour.
João Pedro SilvaEubranchus farrani here usually has translucent white body but it varies a lot. A. sanguinea has a different body shape, thinner and denser cerata and white tips of the cerata.
George Brown Thanks again João. I see what you mean from your excellent photos.
Andy Horton http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/aeolsang
João Pedro SilvaEubranchus farrani as it's usually seen here in Portugal.
João Pedro Silva Sometimes they appear on other photos as "uninvited guests":
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/7132378367/
Christian Skauge The one top right could also resemble an Eubranchus tricolor...
João Pedro Silva E. tricolor doesn't have the yellow tips of the rhinophores and oral tentacles, nor the yellow blotches on the dorsum. The most similar species here is E. linensis which has always white tips of the rhinophores, oral tentacles and cerata and opaque white pigment at the edge of the foot.
Carlos Fernández-Cid Ramos Another yellow.Eubranchus Farrani from Galicia Spain.
João Pedro Silva Interestingly this doesn't show orange blotches on the median area of the body.
João Pedro Silva And another interesting characteristic: white pigment on the tip of the foot. I think Lucas Cervera would like to see this.
Carlos Fernández-Cid Ramos Thanks Joao.I never see here this nudi. If you need I made him a lot of photos. There are other photos with de cerata not "inflated".
João Pedro Silva I never got a decent shot of E. farrani. And yesterday there were 2 next to a Flabellina babai and at least one of them clearly shows the orange blotches:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/7132378367/
Carlos Fernández-Cid Ramos This one is very similar http://www.nudibranch.org/Scottish%20Nudibranchs/html/eubranchus-farrani-20.html
João Pedro Silva Jim's photo shows the typical yellow/orange blotches on the body but yours does not. That's what's puzzling me :)
Carlos Fernández-Cid Ramos Norwegian ones http://www.seawater.no/fauna/mollusca/farrani.html
João Pedro Silva This species is so common I now rarely photograph them. This one had a nice attitude so I took a couple of shots... and what really annoyed me afterwards was to find a couple of Eubranchus farrani in the photo which I hadn't seen because the F. babai distracted me.
Richie West Bit baffled by this wee trio, can anyone help? I thought the very dark nudi might be Flabellina pedata but both it and the tiny white processed one look like they are munching on red algae, not hydroids. I have other pics which clearly show the larger one has been eating seaweed. And what about the nudi on the right with orange-tipped processes that looks like it's eating Nemertesia?
Sarah Bowen Orange swollen tips to cerata suggests Eubranchus. Now I look again at the dark one with white tips they look that swollen but pointy Eubranchus sort of shape....
Sarah Bowen That nice Mr Picton says that there's a colour morph of Eubranchus farrani where the normal translucent white can be replaced by a purple-black or tawny orange hue. And they eat Obelia geniculata, which often grows on algae. Sound plausible?
Jennifer Jones I agree Sarah, and congrats to you Richie for a brilliant photo showing different colour morphs!
Richie West Thanks Sarah and Jen. Mystery solved!
Kerry Lewis Wowsers!
João Pedro Silva The dark ones are Eubranchus farrani. The smaller one has the characteristics of Eubranchus linensis (white tips of the oral tentacles and rhinophores) but E. farrani is so variable and the one on the left has also white tips of the rhinophores and oral tentacles... but definitely not a Janolus.
David Kipling Just so I'm clear ... there are three nudis here. [1] Biggest, far left, dark with white tips. [2] Middle sized, right hand side, orange tips. [3] Smallest one near middle/bottom, grey with white tips.
Which are you saying is which João Pedro?
João Pedro Silva [1] and [2] E. farrani; [3] E. linensis OR E. farrani.
João Pedro Silva Check my latest of E. linensis (much more common than E. farrani here):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6919061696/
David Kipling I don't think we've ever had UK records for E linensis (according to NBN and Habitas).
David Kipling To me, [3] has the "feel" of a baby version of [1]. Richie West ... could you post a cropped version so we can see the little one in more detail please?
João Pedro Silva That's why I'm in doubt regarding [3]. I also think it's more likely to be E. farrani. But there are records of E. linensis as far north as The Netherlands.
Shaun West Hi, Took these photos in Dive St Abbs and 'Tiger Lilly' Just can't quite identify it. Norther most part of the St Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve in around 14 meters of water just under 20 mm in size, sorry the best photo's I have of it. Any idea on and Identification?
Christian SkaugeEubranchus farrani I would say :-)
Shaun West Thanks, but does Enbranchus farrani not have scattered yellow / orange patched on its dorsum and on the tips of the cerata, rhinophores and oral tentacles? Below is an enlarged photo... I can see the from Bernard's bible there is a "all-white" form, I had not spotted this, thanks for the ID...
Christian Skauge If it has pigmentation on the back it's probably a E. pallidus :-)
Bjørnar Nygård Could some one please id these two nudies for me?
Found them on todays dives north of Bergen, Norway at 5-6m depth. The size is about 10mm
Erling SvensenEubranchus farrani?
Torjus Haukvik Is there a hint of a brown band on the rinophores of the left one? In that case, might it be E. pallidus? But as I recall, then it should be some brown spots on the body? As you probably understand, I'm not sure here...
Torjus Haukvik If there's no brown ring, I agree with Erling.
Brendan Oonk E.farrani normaly doesn't have white pigment spots on the cerata, so for the left picture I would go for E.pallidus
Terry Griffiths E.pallidus with no brown spots on body very common sw UK so ID would be spots on cerata (left picture)
Brendan Oonk @ Terry: I agree that's not a lot to go on...
Here a nearly compleet white one is called farrani: http://www.marinbi.com/nudibranchia/eubranchus_farrani.jpg
Picton says: Pigment spots usually on body but never on cerata
http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/species.asp?item=W15130
Brendan Oonk Just to make it somewhat more confusing, here a white version, without the brown bands in the rhinophores is called E. pallidus:
http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1263
Terry Griffiths Brendan Oonk here is the E.pallidus that we get in the Devon area of the UK some not having coloration on the body so ID normally by the spots just on the cerata ,not ever seen a E.farrani with spots over the whole body in this area they can be the black version.http://www.tgup.co.uk/web/Nudibranchs-2013/TG_web01_pp0455
Terry Griffiths Black E.farrani http://www.tgup.co.uk/web/Nudibranchs/Aeolidacea/TG_web01_pp0121
Christian Skauge E. farrani :-)
Bernard Picton I think the shape of the cerata is wrong for either Eubranchus farrani or E. pallidus. I don't know if there are some other Eubranchus described from Norway, Iceland or other northerly localities. I wonder if there are some species there which I don't know about? Jussi Evertsen will know if there are others in the area, but in my opinion this isn't one of the ones we get in the UK.
Christian Skauge There are no other Eubranchus that would remotely look like this in Norway, I think. And I thought the cerata were typical balloon-shaped... = eubranchus?
Brendan Oonk Bernard Do you think the two nudies Bjørnar posted, are the same species?
Torjus Haukvik Especially since we got an udated list of Norwegian species a few weeks ago. ;)
Bernard Picton Yes, I'm sure it's a Eubranchus. The trouble is E. farrani is very variable in colour. But now we have so many "eyes in the sea" I think we will find new ones...
Bernard Picton Brendan Oonk, I thought that too, but two new species at once? That sounds too improbable even for my splitting mentality...
Christian Skauge Bernard is right, farrani is extremely variable. Who knows, there might be more than one species hiding here... we'll collect some for DNA sampling and see :)
Christian Skauge Torjus, the list wasn't complete... I have three more species, at least :-D
Bernard Picton You have to remember, Norway has had far fewer people searching for nudibranchs than the UK. We did find quite a few new ones with SCUBA diving..
Torjus Haukvik Of course you have! :p
Bjørnar Nygård Seems that I might have to take a trip back to the place I saw the specimen and collect some for the nudibranch safari
Christian Skauge Please do! I'll send you some containers with booze ;-)
Bernard Picton Bjørnar Nygård, you should try to be very careful to photograph each one so that we can be certain which body goes with which photograph. Don't make too many assumptions in case there are more than two things there..
Christian Skauge For comparison; here are some of my farrani images. But wait... there's a pallidus among them! Can you spot it?
http://www.scubapixel.com/image-search/farrani
Bernard Picton I've seen some odd E. pallidus at times, these are not easy species I think, but we need to get a good feeling for the amount of variation in each.
Floor Driessen Janolus? Eubranchus?
Unfortunately, I only saw this nudi for couple of seconds. This is the only photo I have. Is it possible to identify this individual without seeing the rhinophores?
Erling SvensenJanolus cristatus, quite sure about that.
Marco Faasse What about Eubranchus farrani?
Erling Svensen What about the size? More than 2,5 cm - then it shoud be the J. cristatus for sure. The Eubranchus only grow to 2 cm. Still I am quite sure about the identifications. Looks like Janolus.
Marco Faasse I'm not sure about E. farrani, but why is it Janolus?
Erling Svensen After 36 years of diving and study of the marine life you just see that this is Janolus. Not a good answere, but the Eubranchus do not look like this. Sorry that I cant say any more about why.......!
Marco Faasse OK
David Kipling Usually easy to tell apart with the little cocks-comb on Janolus. Which you can't see here, sadly ...
Peter H van Bragt Hi Floor, I like this crispy sharp picture. I am pretty sure that we are looking at a specimen of E. farrani. Looking at what I think are the tips of the rhiniphores I do not see any grooves. I don't see any branched tips of the ceratal core, the hepatopancreatic branches (is this correct in English?). These branches are not smooth (as in Janolus) but more ragged as in Eubranchus. You've caught the animal on a hydroid not a Bryozoan. Also I looks to me that this picture was made at Lake Grevelingen where J. cristatus has never been found except for one possible historic observation. E. farrani has been found here more often recently. Is that correct? Too bad the picture doesn't show more of the head region as that would allow a better ID. Cheers Peter H van Bragt
Christian Skauge I believe this to be an Eubranchs farrani. Here's why: It lacks the blue pigment at the very tip of the cerata which is present in J. cristatus; also the digestive gland displays slighty knotted branching which strongly hints at Eubranchus. The digestive glands in J. cristatus look more like a straight, thin and smooth thread that usually branches out just before the pigmentation at the tip. The cerata also tends to be more club-shaped and have rounded tips - and there should be more of them. These cerata have the typical balloon-shape of the Eubranchus as well as the "frosting" before the tip turns all-white, which is common in the E. farrani.
Jim AndersonEubranchus farrani.
David Kipling What makes you say that Jim? [not that I disagree...]
João Pedro Silva Eubranchus, too. Check the digestive gland inside the cerata: they clearly do not reach the white tip in J. cristatus.
David Kipling Is that another key diagnostic criteria João Pedro, alongside the branching duct that Peter mentions?
João Pedro Silva Yes, David. In Janolus, pigment at the tip of of the cerata is superficial and there are no structures such as cnidosacs. Perhaps the white tips are just mimicking cnidosacs...
O Gajo Dos Olivais I'm with E farrani too as for what I could read about. There is an aquarist site that shows images of these two species and curiously the E farrani one looks a lot like this one :) http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/11/aafeature2
Christian Skauge The E. farrani on that site looks more like an E. pallidus to me ;-)
O Gajo Dos Olivais Christian, why?
João Pedro Silva Actually, it looks more like E. linensis.Apparently that photo shows the characteristic white pigment on the edge of the posterior end of the foot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/7427811108/
Christian Skauge @ Fernando, because of the red pigment on the back. It could of course be another species like for instance th E. linensis - didn't look at it that closely and that is also a species I am unfamiliar with. But I would say it's not an E. farrani :-)
João Pedro Silva Lucas Cervera and Bernard Picton have some discussion on E. linensis and one of the colour forms of E. farrani (which also shows red/orange blotches on the back):
http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/eubrline
O Gajo Dos Olivais I was just reading about that little paragraph on seaslug forum on the red /orange blotches.
Floor Driessen Why isn't the individual on my photo a E pallidus?
João Pedro Silva It may well be, Floor. That would also justify the large size. I'm not familiar with E. pallidus so my posts were mostly meant to clarify the question Eubranchus vs Janolus.
Jim Anderson From my observations of these species in Scotland this can only be E. farrani - the shape of the cerata, swollen etc., the white tips with the slightly transparent tip in some - these are my reasons for ID'ing this.
Tony Gilbert Agree with Jim, E. farrani, perhaps a Scottish colour variation.
