Leslie
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Posts posted by Leslie
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Hi Polly & welcome to Wetpixel --
Do you have any close ups of the "worms"? They're more likely to be entwined basket stars/brittle stars or solenogastres (unusual shell-less, worm-like molluscs) than polychaetes. The circular orange area with triangular segments in the middle of the closest branch looks like the disc of a brittle star.
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Two posts in a row on the same critter! This looks to be the giant salp Thetys vagina.
http://jellieszone.com/thetys.htm
http://www.richardherrmann.com/images_Show...L-salp_5530.jpg
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Looks like a fluffy pile of detritus after passing through someone's digestive tract!
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Just heard from Art. He says that he's seen both hairy & non-hairy shrimp like this identified as Phycocaris simulans. Whether both forms really belong to the same species can't be resolved without examining specimens so someday he hopes to get some.
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Good point. It might be diatoms or it could be both. I did a quick web search which brought up a few diatoms in helical colonies but the majority of coiled chain images were of cyanobacteria. We won't know for sure without putting some of this stuff under a microscope.
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Hey guys, you should be posting those WTF images! With all the UW experience around here it's rare that someone doesn't know the answer.
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Oh wow! That circle of fine hairs around the eye is fabulous! Never noticed it before.
Art's opinion on similar shots was maybe Phycocaris simulans, maybe a new species of Phycocaris. I'll send this off to him, see if he known something more at this point.
Davichin - same animal or a different one? They must be pretty territorial if it's the same one.
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Phycocaris simulans I think. We've had a couple of threads about it. It looks like there's something draped on the body - can you tell what it is in high-res?
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Coiled cyanobacteria. Nice catch!
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My best guess is a newly settled ascidian that has just started to divide and will form a colony. Is that a hydroid it's on?
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I'd say a male & female either mating or the male carrying her around to make sure no other male can mate with her. Similar crabs are on the web as Leucosia pubescens - check out Teresa Zubi's site. In one of her shots both crabs are upside down & you can clearly see that one is male & one is female.
http://www.starfish.ch/Fotos/crustaceans-G...-pubescens3.jpg
http://www.starfish.ch/Fotos/crustaceans-G...-pubescens1.jpg
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Sui - I sent the link to our crustacea curator, Dr. Jody Martin, and he was fascinated. If you slow down the footage is there a clear shot of the crab? He'd like to know what it is.
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Cool! That's the first image I've seen of a frogfish taking a hidden crab rather than a swimming fish or shrimp.
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Hi Jim - Isopod yes. Looks like family Sphaeromatidae. For your part of the world Dr. Niel Bruce is the expert on sphaeromatids. He's at the Queensland Museum
http://www.theworkshops.qm.qld.gov.au/Rese...le/B/Niel+Bruce
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Those short reflexed antennae always make me think of family Hippolytidae
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That sounds reasonable based on the information in the Newman & Cannon book.
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Two votes for copepod parasites but no better identification so far. Our fish curator, Dr. Christine Thacker, is a goby expert & didn't recognize it.
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So much prettier than any old shark!
I would just call it Eunice sp for now. Hopefully someone will work up these giant eunicids someday. E. roussaei has been restricted to the Mediterranean & Adriatic Seas & I think aphroditois will end up being restricted to the Indian Ocean or even completely obliterated if type material can't be found.
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Poor little guy.... definitely parasitic in nature. Those are eggs in the lower bulge. Not something I've seen before but I'll pass the photo along to someone who should know what it is.
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Such a big prey for such a tiny predator. It does seem that in the world of nudies it is not always the biggest who eats the smallest...Like we keep telling you guys, size isn't everything!
According to the ever-informative Sea Slug Forum Gymnodoris inornata usually attacks its prey from behind, makes a hole in the prey's skin, and sucks out the internal organs. The prey shrivels away until it is an empty husk at which point the G. inornata will swallow what's left. So as long as it can stay attached it will be a successful predator on animals much larger than itself. http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/gymninor
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That's one possibility. Callioplanidae and Planoceridae are 2 more families that have dorsal tentacles and very thin, transparent & cryptically patterned bodies. I don't really know flatworms & just picture key them like most people so I'm not willing to go past "flatworm" as an id.
Cheerios, L
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You're half right - sea apples do feed on plankton and half wrong - it's not a sea apple. Those are echinoderms - holothuroids in the genera Paracucumaria and Pseudocolochirus. The critter in your video is a sea anemone in the family Actinodendronidae, possibly Actinostephanus haeckeli. The two images at the bottom are of haeckeli - http://web.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/adorian/actinodendronidae.htm Actinodendronid anemones have really powerful nematocysts and as you saw, are quite capable of catching fish.
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Much thanks! Tons of Eunice Roussaei found there, too. One was easily 8 feet long.I'd sure love to see some of those! The real name of the big caribbean eunicids is in doubt and it will require examining specimens to determine the correct name. Same for the other giant eunicids in other parts of the world - even the IP bobbitt. E. roussaei's range is now considered to be Adriactic, Mediterranean, etc. If you like going through scientific jargon (although this isn't as bad as most) there's a discussion about the issue here http://www.ots.ac.cr/tropiweb/attachments/...Polychaetes.pdf
Texture of Tapioca - eggs??
in Critter Identification
Posted
It's hard to tell. Might be eggs from something pelagic like a fish or squid that's drifted down to the bottom & got caught.