SOS

[Leslie 0]

Hi everyone -- I'm stuck at home for another 2-3 weeks and I'm already bored. Now would be a great time to post all those mystery critter shots you've been wondering about. I can't promise ids on everything (there's so much I don't know!) but at least I've got loads to time to search through my references & web surf.

Many thanks, Leslie

[acroporas 0]

I can't believe it, but I dont have any worms or crustacions for you leslie. Has been ages since I have shot macro. I have a few fish and a two corallimophs if you're interested.

[Leslie 0]

Fish & corallimorphs... two groups I leave to others! But thanks for looking.

[frogfish 5]

Leslie,

 

I was just going through the raw outtake shots from last year's Raja Empat trip and found a nice invert you might like. I've got an idea about the family, but that's it.

 

I need to process it before I can post it to ask you what it is, but I'll try to do that in the next couple of days. Don't want you feeling under-utilized - I know you'll never feel under-appreciated!

 

Meanwhile, I might be passing through LA in April next year, spending a few days visiting family. Will you be around? Can I buy you a cup of coffee?

 

Frogfish

[Kelpfish 15]

Hi Leslie,

 

YOU might guess this one, but most divers will not know what this is. I have been diving for 28 years (and I'm only 44 ) and I have only come across this animal one time (or so I thought). According to biologist Greg Jensen, author of the Pisces book "Crabs and Shrimps", this is a very rare shot. Most photos of this animal are when they are dead because they are next to impossible to get close enough to shoot. In this case, I pissed in my wetsuit 2-3 times sitting, waiting, laying low on the bottom, breathing as silently as I could in 15 feet of water. About 70 minutes later, I earned my trust and was able to get this shot. Greg Jensen now uses it in his classes at Washington State.

 

Anyone care to take a guess? It was shot in California at one of the Channel Islands.

 

I'll answer the "or so I thought" later.

 

Joe

[Art 0]

hey, it looks like a spiny molecrab ! Blepharipoda occidentalis

 

we got a similar species, Emerita cf. analoga, on the Pacific coast of Panama

 

it was caught by a heron right in front of me, and I was chasing the latter along the shore until it dropped its prey, I know I know it's animal harrassment .. but it's also an "alternative" collecting method

 

the crab ded a few hours later, look at the whole in the carapace, precisely in the middle where the heart is, the heron was incredibly precise !

 

Art

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Art 0]

we also collected albuneids, probably Lepidopa sp., on the Caribbean side of Panama, with yabby pumps

 

here is one of them

 

these animals are very odd ..

 

cheers

 

Art

[james 0]

They make great bait for surfishing though Art - especially the just-molted ones. :-)

 

Cheers

James

[Paul Kay 65]

Hi Leslie

 

Here's one for you - a worm from Kilkieran Bay, west coast of Ireland!

[Leslie 0]

Robert, please post away, I love your shots from RA & Komodo! April would be great for a visit - I'll even buy you dinner. The Los Angeles UW Photographic Society meets at my museum (I'm the sponsor) on the 3rd wednesday of every month. I'm sure they've love it if the timing worked out & you could attend. Would you like to do a slide show for us? Maybe talk about your current work?

 

Joe, Art took the names right out of my mouth. There's not much he doesn't know about all things crabby! I assume it's B. occidentalis since it's subtidal?

[Leslie 0]

Hi Leslie

Here's one for you - a worm from Kilkieran Bay, west coast of Ireland!

 

Lovely worm, Paul! It's a Megalomma, a genus that unique among sabellids for having compound eyes on the tips of the radioles (the gill branches) and your shot shows them beautifully. What I find really interesting is how the dorsalmost pair of eyes - which are always the largest - are held straight up whereas the other eyes are held down. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the UK fauna & can't do a species id without a specimen.

Thanks for posting---

[Elli and Ted 0]

Hi Leslie, this is from La Palma, Canary Isl. can you tell me what it is?

Besten Dank

Ted

[Rocha 0]

That's easy, it is a fire worm (genus Hermodice, right Leslie?), don't touch it! What I don't know is if this is the same species as the one that is in the Caribbean.

[Leslie 0]

Luiz is right, it's the common coral-eating fireworm Hermodice carunculata. Originally this form was considered a separate species called Hermodice nigrolineata, named for the black lines running across the middle of each segment, but someone decided it was just a color variation of H. carunculata. I think it's definitely the prettiest of all the color variations and a really nice picture.

 

Currently H. carunculata is thought to be circum-tropical (= worldwide in the tropics). It would be a good project for some student to do DNA analysis on specimens from various locations to see if they really do belong to a single species.

thanks!

[Rocha 0]

Currently H. carunculata is thought to be circum-tropical (= worldwide in the tropics).  It would be a good project for some student to do DNA analysis on specimens from various locations to see if they really do belong to a single species.

thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

A friend of mine, Paulo Paiva, from Brazil is doing it! He is at the University of Rio de Janeiro and works in collaboration with Antonio Sole-Cava.

 

Luiz

[Leslie 0]

Rachel C mentioned that he was working on geminate species pairs. I'm especially glad to hear that he's including this one. I'll be even happier if H. nigrolineata turns out to be a valid species affter all.

[frogfish 5]

Leslie,

 

Here you are. Some sort of opistobranch, I would have thought, but which one? The twin body bulges look a bit strange too.

 

I'll email you with details closer to April - I'll be going back to Raja Empat in January, for three weeks, and yes, I do take requests!

 

Frogfish

[Kelpfish 15]

Leslie & all,

 

You are correct, my shot is of a spiney mole crab. I have seen them and held them many times over the years by digging my hands in the surf zone. But to see them actively living in the sand while diving was a treat.

 

Joe

[Leslie 0]

Leslie,

Here you are.  Some sort of opistobranch, I would have thought, but which one?  The twin body bulges look a bit strange too.

I'll email you with details closer to April - I'll be going back to Raja Empat in January, for three weeks, and yes, I do take requests!

Frogfish

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh ho, this guy! He sure fools a lot of people. It's a benthic ctenophore, and it looks like the one calledd Coeloplana sp. 2 in Gosliner, Behrens, & Williams. Unlike the usual planktonic forms these guys are found in soft bottoms & on leather corals & seastars. The twin lobes carry the branched feeding tentacles typical of all ctenophores.

 

Requests? Worms, worms, and more worms, of course!

[Leslie 0]

Leslie & all,

You are correct, my shot is of a spiney mole crab.  I have seen them and held them many times over the years by digging my hands in the surf zone.  But to see them actively living in the sand while diving was a treat. 

Joe

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

that's really neat - I've never seen a live one. Only Emerita.

[Paul Kay 65]

Thanks Leslie. Looking through my books I'd hazard a guess and say that its Megalomma vesiculosum - unfortunately I can only find drawings and one photo on the web which is of a larger more straggly specimen. I've seen this creature before around Britain and Ireland but never got a good ID on it.

 

Loads of Fire Worms in the Canary Islands - I got a shot a couple of weeks ago showing a 'fluffed up' one - something had upset it (not me) which I'll try to post.

[Paul Kay 65]

Whilst diving today in a flooded Welsh slate quarry I spotted the attached rather bizarre creature. For the trechnically minded it was 15m down and shot at 1/13s at f/1.4 with an ISO equivalence of 800 (no flash) and the water temperature was 9 degrees C. The creature has been tagged.

 

This picture should be of great interest to the scientific community as it provides us with a great deal of fascinating information. Unfortunately, I think that the information is of rather more value to a psychologist studying divers than to a biologist. Hope it entertains.

[frogfish 5]

Oh ho, this guy!  He sure fools a lot of people.  It's a benthic ctenophore, and it looks like the one calledd Coeloplana sp. 2 in Gosliner, Behrens, & Williams.  Unlike the usual planktonic forms these guys are found in soft bottoms & on leather corals & seastars. The twin lobes carry the branched feeding tentacles typical of all ctenophores.

 

Requests?  Worms, worms, and more worms, of course!   

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's the second time I've been fooled by a ctenophore - and I'm pretty sure it was you who set me straigt on the other one too.

 

OK, you're on - worms coming up (so to speak.)

 

Frogfish

[Leslie 0]

Whilst diving today in a flooded Welsh slate quarry I spotted the attached rather bizarre creature. For the trechnically minded it was 15m down and shot at 1/13s at f/1.4 with an ISO equivalence of 800 (no flash) and the water temperature was 9 degrees C. The creature has been tagged.

 

This picture should be of great interest to the scientific community as it provides us with a great deal of fascinating information. Unfortunately, I think that the information is of rather more value to a psychologist studying divers than to a biologist. Hope it entertains.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh my god!!!! It's Son of Godzilla!* What have you done, Paul? Haven't 37 Japanese films & 1 Hollywood stinker taught you anything? Godzilla was an aquatica creature awakened by UW disturbances who went on to ravage Tokyo .... repeatedly! Someone needs to alert the Wales Home Security Team!

 

*Or should we call him Paulzilla?

[Paul Kay 65]

I only photographed this version of Godzilla - it was already down there - along with some garden gnomes, several scuba type action men, varied strange other items and, in true christmas spirit, a tinselly waterlogged branch!

 

Seriously though, this quarry is right next to the UK's largest Hydro Electric Storage power station and when they switch it on, the vibration is somewhat startling underwater to say the least. In terms of its aquatic life it is a bit sparse. There were some trout (but these were nicked as people illicitly fished for them), a few eels and I've seen one rather worried looking goldfish. The large toad at 17m seen by several divers was in fact very dead!

 

I'll try to post some proper shots for ID soon.