cookmedoc

Fabulous and informative.

There are several white blotched species, I did not find this one in Allen, Steene etc... but your fish matches perfectly the Xyrichtys melanopus in Kuiter & Debelius, p. 616 bottom right. I think the small black patch at the end of anal fin is important, combined with other characteristics is truly this one. In the Philippines here this kind of fish is rare, and we only meet them like 20 m and down on sandy mud bottoms with more sand than mud. Guido

After a long silence we start uploading again photos on www.poppe-images.com. There are 46 622 photos from marine life of the Philippines today. 4500 photos will be uploaded in the coming weeks and over 10 000 are in processing stage. Please visit. We need help for corrections on many groups as we are experts in mollusks only (but that concerns 56000 marine species - of which about 5000 are living in front of my house here and we discovered over 2000 new species in the last 6 years. Expected are 12000 species for the Philippines in the short term future). Of the newly discovered ones we could describe and let describe about 250 in the latest two years, looking for funding also in order to proceed fast with the description of the 1800 undescribed ones waiting in drawers. Contact us if interested in this project. Guido

The shell is definitely not a clam, clams (Pectinidae) have eyes that look as pearls all around the "tentacles". This shell belongs to the family LIMIDAE and it is most probably Lima lima (Linnaeus,1758). References are Rios (1994), Abbott (1974), Macsotay, Campos & Vilarroel (2001) and a live one was figured by Humann (1999) Guido

Leslie & All, The photo from Scuba equipment is probably the same as on: http://www.daveharasti.com/nelsonbay/seasl...Volva_volva.jpg The fabulous shot shows the host: the gorgonian, and below the shell are the egg capsules of Volva volva. This is most probably a "première". It also proves that the species lives within diving depths. All by all the Volva volva has been photographed at least 4 times by now.

I here attach an image to show how the shell of this amazing animal looks like. Volva volva, family OVULIDAE.

Leslie is right, the first one is the juvenile Ovula ovum - the colors match with certain nudibranches - which are poisonous - and the juvenile of this large common sea cucumber. The second one is a fantastic photo: it is a Volva volva crawling on the bottom. Same family. Photos of this species alive a rarities: I've dredged one piece at 80 m deep in the central Philippines and photographed it, but in 1300 dives in all sort of biotopes we could never photograph one. Apparently the species is 60 m and down, from where... fishermen take them in quantities between 100 and 150 m on gravel and mud bottoms.

I agree with all, most probably Polycera, but nothing with these colors in our databases. A frustrating Polycerid. Plenty with the same shape, but all different patterns. Guido

Nice shots. The first one is, I think, a member of the JULIIDAE - crawling Bivalves. But again, we need to see the shell to be sure. Guido

Great shots. I'll start dusk diving more. Guido

Hello Leslie, no such thing exists as yet. The usual problem between the photo and the "jar" with the animal that is not collected - I can't blame anybody because we also photograph and don't take the animals unless it's a VERY RARE shell, which almost never happens because rare shells have the unfortunate property of being rare. Debelius figures a lot. In most shellbooks there are a few sparse photos. This is a problem for the family as Ovulids have also a sexual dimorphism in many species and the shell shapes are MOST PROBABLY depending from the gorgonians they eat and live on. So, it is important to collect the "two" specimen if they are sitting together as often the case and to figure them somewhere on a place as this one here. Guido

Yes Leander, in this case the image is not enough. It probably concerns a juvenile judging after the transparancy of the shell. If you have the shell front and backview we can try a determination. An identical animal is figured in Debelius (1998) also as "sp". Guido

Indeed an Ovulidae, but rather Prionovolva pudica. If the thing is about 16 mm. Great shot, good we see part of the dorsum. Guido

If not a baby Aplysia, something closely related. Guido

Dear Leander, this is a member of the family OVULIDAE - not a real cowry. Genus Phenacovolva. For more determination, we need to see the shell in detail. There are many species in the Indo-Pacific. Guido