cookmedoc

Fabulous photos and great info, but what's this squid doing on Sam's photo ? Really producing an egg ? Then it becomes round after that ? Or is he eating something. Speaking about squid eggs, yesterday, at the end of the dive we found big mass of squid eggs in the shallows (like 6 m only). My crew started collecting them: it's a delicacy in the Philippines. Ever heard about this ?

Possibly a cable with a sponge around. I didn't touch it, but when I see it again I'll feel how it feels.

Dear all, This "thing" is about 8-10 mm in diameter, 30 cm long, at the entrance of a small cave, 12 m deep, Mactan Island. No idea what it is (apart from the sponge).

Alex, great idea, all of us who have a picture of this Mimic Octopus should post it here. We then contact the authors - a quick advance in knowledge. True also that the result may strongly be directed to where people dive, but it may add a lot of knowledge to the range known.

Oeps, sorry "mimicus" not mimucus.

Absolutely true, but there are lots of cosmopolitan Cephalopods. I here repeat the "Distribution" according to the authors of the new genus and new species: "Thaumoctopus mimucus is reported here from the shallow waters of the Tropical West Pacific Ocean from New Caledonia across Papua New Guinea and Indoneia, wet to Mabul Island, Malaysia and north to Luzon Island, Philippines. Based on photographic records, we also tentatively report this species from Elat in the Red Sea. Depth records range from one metre to 37 m" ` Looking at their pictures I'm quite convinced it's the same animal here, but I'm sure these experts would love to have one in rum from the Red Sea.

We think with a high degree of certitude, but not 100 % (almost) that this is the newly described "Mimic Octopus" Thaumoctopus mimicus Norman & Hochberg, 2005. See Molluscan Research 25(2): 57-70. Holotype from New Caledonia, reported from other photographs from the Red Sea: Shen and E. Clark photos, Eilat, Gulf of Aqaba and photos Mark Lipscombe. Congratulations, fantastic animal: we wait to see one here in the Philippines where it was also reported from.

Same for us here, the closest we could get is PHOXICHILIDIIDAE, Stylopallene longicauda, also from Australia, but definitely this one here is a different species.

Yes, I'm glad that my "not knowing the previous topic" at least led to the identification, thanks to Leslie. Many thanks to wetpixels.com: it was very frustrating not knowing what this big thing was. For all, on our homepage the pictures have been moved in Squids.

Leslie, a thousand thanks. Was looking at this homepage you mention earlier already and the photographs of enlarged eggs put already doubt in my mind. Just checked your reference to the Venus and indeed, there is no doubt in my mind anymore. Definitely the Sabay are Thysanotheuthis or related species eggs. Now move all our images from category.....

Art, Muricidae are extremely difficult to photograph with details of the animal in natural position. In this case your photo, even not in natural position, IS important, as most animals of the smaller shells have never been photographed and we know little about their appearance and colours. Congrats.

Just found images on the web from egg mass of Cephalopod, genus Gonatus: http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2239/2005-12-17/148@288083.htm these again look different from the ones in the Tsuchiya & Yamamoto book and different from the Sabay.

Dear Leslie, cannot agree on this Cephalopod egg thinking, despite what experts say. That's why we need samples of this badly. One of the best references with good shots we have here in office is Cephalopods in Japanese waters by Tsuchiya & Yamamoto (2002). Unfortunately the texts are in Japanese with sparse English localities and of course names in Latin. Amazing photos in there. On pages 70-71 there are great photos of a large pelagic squid producing an egg mass. These eggs do not form a moving tube but are dispersed in the water (clearly visible on the shoulder of a diver next to it). And I never heard of stinging eggs. On the other hand, in the same book, there is a foto of a Sabay (let's name it as such, as this is a common name in wide use here) taken in Okinawa by Kitagawa Nobuo. But cannot read the text...

Thank you William, I'm new to this list. Have read in diagonal the infos and it is amazing. At least we now know this is a cosmopolitan animal(s). 'll take the energy to contact Liège on this. It is of course advised for anybody who sees this to take a sample for expert examination - but carefull. Extra info: here in the Visaya's the fishermen call it "Sabay".

This "thing" is up to 5 meters in lenght and floats here in the central Philippines, about 1 to 3 m deep below the surface. I've seen one ten years ago and we photographed two during the latest 2 years. One near the Camotes Islands, one on Mactan Island (Hadsan). See http://www.poppe-images.com/images/image_info.php#fs These animals are well known by fisherman here who pretend they sting and there are even cases where people were killed. I've mailed photos to the MNHN, Paris, where my malacological friends referred me to the jellyfish experts, they referred me to University of Liège, Belgium, but then I got other things to do and it went out of the mind. This Critter Identification section is fantastic, so maybe some of you know about this. In a couple of books I've seen it as "eggs of giant squid" but this is impossible. Nothing to do with squid or octopus eggs. This giant animal, or colony of animals, moves slowly. Shape is a tube. Very curious to learn more on it.

This shell is probably Risomurex deformis (Reeve), family MURICIDAE, a common synonym is Risomurex schrammi (Crosse). However, identification is not a 100 % possible because we have no details of the aperture. The knobs from Risomurex deformis varie from white to pink to this bright colour.