Aegires punctilucens

Tamsyn MAnn A very slow moving smudge on kelp... that's how I spotted this today! Well chuffed :) Think it's a Aegires punctilucens. About 14-15m down, 8-10mm, Porthkerris, Cornwall.

João Pedro Silva You're right: A. punctilucens it is.

Tamsyn MAnn Whoo hoo! :)

Kirstie Harris Nice spot, I know I would've missed that completely!

David Kipling Aegires punctilucens, taken two days ago in South Pembrokeshire, especially for Terry Griffiths and João Pedro Silva.

Becky Hitchin gorgeous!

Terry Griffiths Thank you David :-)

Kate Lock A treat at "Squirt city" Linney Head....

João Pedro Silva Thanks, David! It's always great to find this master of camouflage.

Christian Skauge Remember; the best camouflage has not yet been spotted... :-)

John de Jong Nice one.

David Kipling This pic gives some sense of scale, Becky.

Andy Horton

João Pedro Silva Yes, it's Aegires punctilucens.

Morten Bjørn Larsen New photos from this year's Nudibranch (nøgensnegle) Safari in Gulen, Norway on my website: http://www.mortenbjorn.dk/

Christian Skauge This is just gorgeous, Morten!

João Pedro Silva Very nice. I've only seen this species twice and I'm still puzzled how I could find it.

Morten Bjørn Larsen Thanks! I was just lucky on a night dive. It was sitting on a kelp leaf :-)

Morten Bjørn Larsen Aegires punctilucens is its name.

David Kipling 'points of light'. Very apt.

David Kipling Is this annoyingly difficult-to-photograph critter Lomanotus marmoratus? Near Skomer, 16m depth, cobble-sediment seabed, on Nemertesia. I know distinguishing them from L. genei is non-trivial.

Marco Faasse In my opinion this is Lomanotus marmoratus. Aegires punctilucens does not have a thin tip to the bulbous end of the papillae.

David Kipling Bernard comments on there being occasional colourless versions of L. genei that can look like L. marmoratus ... I'm not quite sure what to look for to tell them apart excluding colour.

Marco Faasse It must be late. I read Aegires, which you didn't write, David Kipling. I think I have never seen L. genei with such bulbous cerata tips.

Terry Griffiths I have the coloured version of L.genei and the plain white variation, i think it's L.marmoratus i have also have the marbled variation of it to, nice find tho.

David Kipling It took a while to convince myself it was a nudi. It was only when I zoomed in and saw the rhinophore sheaths that I knew, at which point it got a lot more attention!

Albert Hartono Need help to ID this. Found in Tulamben, Bali

Dray Van Beeck Dendrodoris denisoni

Albert Hartono Thanks for the ID Dray Van Beeck

Bonar Sitohang It looks like the nudi comes from a royal family. ;)

정대위 D. denisoni synonymized Dendrodoris krusensternii (Gray, 1850). Reference from WoRMS (http://www.marinespecies.org/). I studied this species by molecular works, Austrailian species and North-eastern Aisa species have much distance with COI genes about 10%. I think it need to sperated to another species.

Albert Hartono Yess glamour nudi Bonar Sitohang :)

Albert Hartono Thanks for the ID David

Bonar Sitohang Where did you find it, Albert?! I mean the dive spot.

Kimber Stonehouse Beautiful pic! The colours & lighting are gorgeous!

David Kipling It's interesting to see how similar this species is to another unrelated one that we get in the UK, yet still has blue dots and these lumps protuberances (Aegires punctilucens - translates as "points of light"). http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/aegipunc

Tamsyn MAnn David Kipling - I was thinking the same thing as I looked at the picture... interesting about 'points of light.' That's the thing I have learnt today :)

David Kipling The benefit of a classical edukashun Tamsyn ;)

João Pedro Silva Blue dots are also common in other unrelated animals and there are other perhaps more important parts of the anatomy which are very different (thinking about the rhinophores here). But is there a gene for the "blue dots"? And could it be found in other animals (for instance, Timon lepidus)? That would be interesting to find.

Karen Rochester This is a Dendrodoris denisoni. :-)

João Pedro Silva Karen Rochester, don't forget to read the previous comments :)

Roy Arthur David Lontoh Bonar Sitohang we found it @the drop off, Tulamben :D

Albert Hartono Om Bonar Sitohang sorry, Roy sudah bantu jawab... jujur aku agak lupa :)

Bonar Sitohang Albert Hartono...in English please. ;)

Terry Griffiths Hi all any chance of a ID on this one not the best photo ,it was about 5mm .

João Pedro Silva Aegires punctilucens

João Pedro Silva I've only seen it twice but only got decent shots once: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/5654788782/

Terry Griffiths Thank you Joao never seen one before .

João Pedro Silva I think it's one of the most difficult species to spot of those that I've seen.

Terry Griffiths I was just on my way back in and with my eye sight i thought it was a Doto just take the photo and check it when i get home.

João Pedro Silva That's more or less what happened with my first encounter. The second time I think I wasted some 20bar yelling underwater after realizing that I had found it again.

Dan Bolt poss eubranchus vittatus, but really bunched up?!

Terry Griffiths @Dan blue spot ? only because you missed it today lol

Dan Bolt @T, git!!

Julia Nunn Hi Terry Aegires punctilucens Julia

David Kipling Points of light, very apt.

Geoffrey Van Damme 10mm 5mtr Blairgowrie, no idea of id.

Brendan Oonk Could it be Aegires punctilucens?

Gary Cobb This is Aegires exeches Fahey & Gosliner, 2004 known for its tiny blue spots. http://www.nudibranch.com.au/pages/G_0345b.htm

Geoffrey Van Damme Thankyou very much for id.

Gary Cobb My pleasure!

Penny Martin Please can anyone advise..... it doesn't look like anything in my book ... is it a sponge ?????

Rob Spray Good guess... Leucosolenia botryoides - http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=3665

Penny Martin Thank you .... I really appreciate the help

Cynthia D. Trowbridge lovely! we just dissected the Pacific Leucosolenia last week :-)

Claire Goodwin I'd stick to Lecosolenia sp. at the moment. UK calcarea are a mess (thanks Burton!). We looked at spicules from a load of Lecosolenia specimens and couldn't find a good pattern between them and external form.

Rob Spray ... I never meant to sound so smug and definite...

David Kipling Any Aegires punctilucens crawling around in that clump Penny?

João Pedro Silva Aegires punctilucens Local: Sesimbra, Portugal Spot: Ponta da Passagem Profundidade: 14m Data: 25-04-2011

Luis Martins da Silva how do I find these wonderful animals?

Christian Skauge Here's the general plan: 1. Look very closely 2. If still no luck, go back to 1 :-)

Luis Martins da Silva good.

David Kipling Know what they eat and look at that first. They are carnivores, and have panda-like fussiness for food. Find the food, find the nudi.

Christian Skauge Sorry Luis, didn't mean to be a smartass... but getting close is very important. Finding out what nudibranchs eat is also a good start, because the food is often much easier to spot than the 'branchs themselves. Swim slowly and close to the bottom, and investigate ANYTHING that looks like it's alive :-)

Christian Skauge So if any of them eat french fries, McDonalds would be a good place to look...?

David Kipling Well no, because they don't eat vegetables ;)

João Pedro Silva I usually advise on "tuning your sight" to you target's size and features. I usually overlook large conger eels, octopuses and other larget animals.

Christian Skauge I even overlooked a manta once :-) @ David: Hmm, of course... dug my own grave there!

João Pedro Silva Aplysia might eat french fries.

Christian Skauge Especially the Aplysia frenchfriesii :-D

David Kipling Another trick is to stop finning. Settle down on a patch of reef (sponges and hydroids and bryozoans are good) and just look. I often do this while I'm waiting for Sarah to take some pictures. After a short while your "eye" starts to see things, you don't see them at first because the reef is so complex. And yes, they are often very very small, so get in close and explore. As João Pedro says, "tuning" your eyes is good.

David Kipling We call Pentapora "potato crisp bryozoan" and we see nudis on that ;)

Christian Skauge Good advice there, from both of you. I often see few slugs on the way out (and I'm always surprised at how few there are) - but then on the way back they start popping up everywhere. The eyes just need time to adjust :-)

João Pedro Silva Christian: Aplysia macdonaldophyla :) David, I was once asked during one of my talks how I could see them and I really couldn't find an answer. Then someone in the audience said "I know: you're tuned into nudibranchs". And I still haven't come up with a better answer.

Luis Martins da Silva Thank you all. I collect some for a great friend and researcher at the University of nudibranchios vigo and am having difficulty to find them

João Pedro Silva There are some species which require you to look for some distinctive feature, like rhinophores (that's how I think I've spotted Aegires punctilucens) or simply the edge of the mantle or some slight hue variation on some sponge like in this cryptic Geitodoris: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/7042213947/

Luis Martins da Silva Thank you, João Pedro.

Erwin Koehler I sounds funny, I often saw them becuse they were moving,

David Kipling Not funny at all, Erwin. That's where my trick of settling down close to a bit of reef and just staring at it helps. Once your brain knows the stationary stuff it then sees the movements. Aegires punctilucens looks just like a bit of silt (where we dive) but - unlike silt! - moves as you watch it ...

Erwin Koehler I did not want to send the recent message, the way it is, the 'next line' button in all kinds of text editors is here in facebook the 'enter' button, so I must be very careful - no, I really don' t like it, I stop writing!

David Kipling I'm always doing that and then have to delete posts! Shift-Enter for new line Erwin (like this)