Polymastia agglutinans

Craig Muirhead redirected from NE Tunicata (thanks George Brown :)) Loch Leven, Scotland 04/08/13

David Kipling Ah but which one, there's that tapering one with the ridge line and then the other less tapering one ...

David Kipling It's one we sometimes argue about, as the tapering one isn't always as tapering in all the chimneys as you'd like...

Holly Latham Are you arguing between Polymastia penicillus and Ciocaylpta penicillus...? I would go with P. penicillus - lacking the central core, wrong texture and quite delicate. But then there could be something else... It is a strange shape (the base is not rounded) but that could presumably be influenced by its surroundings. Are there any others you are thinking of?

Richard Yorke What about Polymastia agglutinans? It was suggested I should call this Polymastia cf. agglutinans which was taken at around 20m on Lullworth Banks, Dorset July 2012

David Kipling We weren't arguing, I was just making sure in my mind why it wasn't the next-nearest species (always a good question to ask explicitly). Although Holly you're right that it doesn't feel the same as the ones we gets in Pembs, although local conditions etc etc.

Holly Latham Arguing is indeed a harsh way of putting it... I was not insinuating hand bags at dawn, more a thorough discussion of the relevant characteristic features of the species! ;)

David Kipling lol! Me and Dawn and handbags, now there's an image. No, what I meant was that I wasn't disagreeing with Dawn, just wanted to hear why it wasn't the other one that looks the same (a bit like when your maths teacher made you "show the working" for extra points).

Claire Goodwin Hate to throw a spanner in the works (to add to Dawn's brick) but there are quite a few as yet un-named species of Polymastia within diving depths which Christine Morrow is currently working on. This does look a bit different to P.penicillus (the base cushion is un-silted which is odd) so I wouldn't be 100% sure it is that. You can definitely tell it apart from Ciocalypta penicillus as (as said above) as it lacks the central column of spicules up the papillae and the papillae aren't tapered to a point.

David Kipling Do we need to send Craig back to get a sample Claire?

Claire Goodwin Of course :).

Holly Latham Thanks for confirming my fears Claire... any good resources for current info on alternate Polymastia species?

Claire Goodwin Not until Christine gets her paper finished....

Nick Owen Oooh. Paper on Polymastias, Lovely! Yes please. Any chance of a notification when it comes out please? Re Polymastia agglutinans: Didn't I read somewhere that "agglutinans" refers to its habit of binding particles to its basal cushion so that it can't be "wafted" clean? Just like Richard's pic... Note also that Richard's has closed papillae - seem to recall this is also a charachter of Pol agg.