crab and sea snail from lembeh

[whitehead 0]

can anyone help with these two - they have me stumped

 

this is the first one i have not been able to find

Lembeh - about 1-15 mm long, 5 meters deep

 

 

this is one is not on its orig host, it was found on a sea urchin at night but i could not get a focus lock (black crab - black urchin) - normally i would not move anything but i knew it was something i had not seen before (poor excuse!)

 

Lembeh - about 10 mm wide, 15 meters deep

 

 

ps have not been in the water since last october but am off to maratua in a week so hopefully i can stump myself somemore

[Leslie 0]

Not since October? You poor man.....

 

They are stumpers. Both of them are "kinda" something.... hopefully someone else will tell us what they really are!

 

Did the first one have a head with 2 rhinophores at the edges? It reminds me of the saccoglossan Oxynoe with the head tucked in. Most of the Oxynore species are smooth but a few have papillae. I really didn't get a reliable match off the web or even in my books -- the pics here look somewhat similar but it's from Turkey & unlikely to be the same as yours. http://kisi.deu.edu.tr/lcavas/ctenophor.html

 

THe second one is similar to Echinoecus pentagonus which is known to live on urchins. It normally has 2 white lines on the carapace in addition to the white margin but that seems to be variable (or else some of the pics on the web are mis-identified).

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...6lr%3D%26sa%3DG

[whitehead 0]

cheers leslie - thanks a million.

 

No visible rhinopores or head on the "slug" - I was thinking more of a Gastrapod

[cookmedoc 0]

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

[echeng 0]

guys -- in order to keep this forum organized, PLEASE use useful titles in your posts. "Couple of ids" isn't useful...

[Leslie 0]

A juliid? Hmm, I might have to argue against that one, Guido. I have seen several species live: the shell is external & the mantle (or foot) doesn't extend over it like this. Are there species in which this is not the case?

[RebreatherDave 0]

Leslie, you're a crackup, as you rock.

[whitehead 0]

Eric - already changed, apologies

 

Leslie, Guido,

 

The only thing I found close in my books was Scintilla cf. cuvieri (Neville Coleman's 2002 sea shells, page 77) but after a web search I decided the general shape was wrong - let me see if i can search out some more of my shots.

[Leslie 0]

Thanks, Dave (I think) - taxonomy rocks!

 

Paul - more shots would be helpful, many thanks. I don't think it's Scintilla - did you see http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/reefs/guam/guamim...es/Image11.html ?

[RebreatherDave 0]

Many of my dive partners are a bunch of gear heads who use diving as an excuse to get cool rebreather stuff......Now while I like to pimp my dive gear too, it is a means to an end, and that is to see marine life.

 

I used to be really into salt water tropical reef tanks... I thought watching one of my gobies and commensal pistol shrimp cleaning house was entertaining to no end......I personally just think the more colorful, unusual critters are really fascinating to watch them go about their business.......when diving my friends swim right past the anemones and eels and the other inverts and the odd stuff as I am stopping and going:oh, there's an aboinensis shrimp!, oh, there's a pederson shrimp!, oh, there's a stenopus hispidis, check out the oxymonocanthus longirostrus!....they think I'm weird. I thought when I spied a mated pair of robust ghost pipefish doing their best impression of a dead pieces of palm leaves, I was in heaven.

 

During a dive briefing in the Philippines, the dive guides were pointing to pictures of what critters we might see, during one briefing they pointed to a photo that said "batfish" I said just barely loud enough for all to hear: "platax pinnatus", then when they pointed to the next batfish, I whispered platax tiera, juvenile.

 

So instead of being wierd as they thought, instead of just finding colorful beautiful ocean things really cool, in honor of you, Leslie, I will just deadpan to them; "I'm a taxonomist"

 

Now, I am STILL trying to see a living Gnathophyllum americanus.

 

[Leslie 0]

So instead of being wierd as they thought, instead of just finding colorful beautiful ocean things really cool, in honor of you, Leslie, I will just deadpan to them; "I'm a taxonomist"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Dave

[whitehead 0]

heres a few more....

[Leslie 0]

Thanks for the additional pics. I've sent them off to some slug & snail folk for more opinions. I'm hoping they agree with Guido just because it would be so cool if this was a julid!

[Leslie 0]

Hi Paul --

 

After stumping our resident brancher I finally got an answer from Terry Gosliner. He feels it's just an odd Stylocheilus longicauda.

[whitehead 0]

leslie,

 

thanks a million!

 

just got back from maratua but doubt if any good stuff in my pics - was a macro nightmare - just 3 branchs in a whole week!! i need another trip already.

[RebreatherDave 0]

I know it is a lime green new style Volkswagen Beatle, but I think it is a limited edition punk rock version.....the spikes give it away.