Dryodora glandiformis

                                                                                                                                                                               Return to Ctenophores

This small (15? mm ) boreal species  is more commonly seen further north than the Salish Sea, so this was a rare treat. According to Claudia Mills, this ctenophore has an unusual reproductive strategy.  In response to the first photo below, she notes that “rows of eggs are visible in behind the comb rows/canal.  They spawn these eggs daily and the eggs stick together for at least a couple of days in short strings of 2 to maybe 10 eggs. Each animal is hermaphroditic and they can self-fertilize these spawning eggs, although in the lab I’ve found that with just one ctenophore in a dish, only about half the eggs in each string go on to develop.” There is another excellent image available on inaturalist that Claudia Mills took around the same time –during the Spring of 2021. She notes that it illustrates two “very fine, unbranched tentacles. It eats primarily appendicularia. It is never very common, and is difficult to see because it is very transparent.” (Appendicularia are free swimming tunicates which most commonly live in the pelagic photic zone or the most light-filled uppermost zone of the ocean).