Last summer vacation in Croatia we found this seaslug. After making some pictures, we were trying to find out what kind of slug this could be.
On showing the pictures in the divecenter they could not help because none of the people working there had ever seen it!
We started leafing trough all the available books and the closest we could come up with was Umbraculum Mediteraneum. It was not a picture, but a drawing, and the only slug that had this little shell on it’s back. During all the dives we’ve made those nearly 3 weeks, we’ve found 3 slugs of the same kind.
On returning home, I could not find a single picture of umbraculum mediteraneum, all we could find is Umbraculum umbraculum. The shell on top (the umbrella) is exactly the same as our slug, but the body is completely different, and the color even more so!
I will try to put a picture here for all of you to see! please let me know if you have seen this slug before or if you have found pictures that look like the same slug!
Thanks! greetings and keep wet

ps: can’t get the picture uploaded, don’t know what I’m doing wrong...I’ll ask my son later… sorry
Claudia

I’ve resized it, 800 x 600 and still get the message:
Error Message:  The file you are attempting to upload has invalid content for its MIME type.

Hi Claudia,

welcome to the forum.
The picture is probably too large. Try sizing it down to 800x600, then it should work.

Regards, Marc

Marc Momberg - 18 March 2008 06:43 PM

Hi Claudia,

welcome to the forum.
The picture is probably too large. Try sizing it down to 800x600, then it should work.

Regards, Marc

thanks Marc, but there is something else that does not work, I’ve put it in my original message:-)

Hey Claudia,

that’s strange.. can you please send me a private message with the image as attachment.
this way I can see what the problem is. thanks.

best Lars

Hi Claudia - let´s try another way.

Telling about Croatia and a slug with shell on its back reminds me of Tylodina perversa.

Take a closer look at mine - did it look so ?

Sorry - I´m getting the same MIME-error, so I`ll send a link to my homepage

www ... justmypix.de/assets/images/6422414.jpg ... appendix: it finally worked - see below

Greets Frank

@Frank: hmm strange… I just downloaded your picture and uploaded
it as an attachment to my post and it worked. I didn’t get any MIME
error message. Which browser do you use?

/lars

@Lars

I’m using Firefox - I’ve just tried pretty much the same and it worked, nevertheless the upload of the original file causes the
MIME-error again.  Finally resizing led to success.

Fehlermeldung:  Die Datei die hochgeladen werden soll hat einen ungültigen Inhalt für ihren MIME-Typ

Greets Frank

@Frank:
1. Which tool did you use to resize the image?
2. Did you use Photoshop to save the first file?
3. If you used Photoshop, did you export the file with the Photoshop web export or did you save the file normally as jpeg?

thanks in advance.

/lars

Hi Frank!!
you are a genius!

It’s the same seaslug! I’m so happy!

The only seaslug that remotely looked like “ours” was the umbraculum, the shell is exactly the same, but the body is completely different, color and texture!
Did you see a lot of them? Did you find any eggs? Are they common or rare?
I would like to know a bit more about this slug, because it’s such a beautifull one!!(I think...)
we had been diving on the very same divesite for 3 years and only the 4th year did we find this kind of slug.
After we found the first one, we kept searching for more, but only found a total of 3.
Once we had located them they were fairly easy to find on most of the dives.
Nearly to the end of the vacation we found the shell of the smallest one… :-(
we’ll never know if it had been eaten or if some kind of idiot tried to peel of the shell!
If I get to attach my picture you’ll see it’s the same one!

Thanks again!
“keep wet”
Claudia

Hi Claudia,

thx for your compliments but I`m not nearly a genius   It has been the first time that I saw this species in the Adriatic Sea. But you’re right it is a nice one and a very interesting, too. The headword is medicine from below the surface. Just try to find out something about the relationship between Tylodina perversa and the sponges Aplysina aerophoba. You will find a lot of informations in the web. It’s too complex for this forum but extremly interesting as I understand it. Take a look here http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=12689 or http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=7549 where you can find facts and pictures even from the eggs.

Where did you find the Tylodina in Croatia ? If you take a look at the Croatian section of my website http://www.justmypix.de you will find out that we found the common ones like Discodoris atromaculata or the Flabellinas but this one I only saw once.

@Lars
- Resizing was done by IrfanView (just ‘quick and dirty’ in the evening)
- sorry, I can´t remember, cause I`m using several programs and tools

Greets Frank

P.S: I can try to send different versions of pics if you want to make an analysis

Yes!!! it seems to work this way!
So, finaly what we thought to be Umbraculum Mediteraneum, turned out to be Tylodina Perversa!
There never seem to be enough books on hand in any divecenter I’ve ever been to, most of the time I’m the one who has more info on lokal underwater life than they have!
But even I don’t have a library about slugs, snails and fish
This year I’m shure if I find something I dont know I’ll be the first to post it here!!
thanks guys!
Greetings,
keep wet!
Claudia