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Erling Svensen This nudi at Gulen with eggs under a rock. I have problems.... Please give me some help...
Kjetil Breivik Johnson Nice little fellow :-)
Jim Anderson From the shape of the rhinophores and the white on the cerata and oral tentacles I'd say this is
Favorinus blianus - the colour in the cerata comes from the eggs it has been eating I think.
Sarah Bowen Yes, I see what you mean - the colour had me confused too, but if you look carefully there's a kind of 'ribbed' effect to the rhinophores which is characteristic of this species. Great shot!
Bernard Picton Those eggs look like
Berghia norvegica, could be a new food for F. blianus.
Erling Svensen This was down the track and just below all the F. browni nudies to the right, Bernard.
Bernard Picton I think it is quite unusual for nudibranchs to lay their eggs beneath rocks and shells, and the spiral looks right for Berghia. We should measure the egg size to see if it matches the size range for species with direct development; that is where the eggs hatch directly into small slugs with no swimming stage. It is the most uncommon type of development in northern waters.
Christian Skauge Favorinus blianus on Berghia eggs in my opinion too :-)
Christian Skauge Finally found one! I have been looking for the
Polycera faeroensis for a long time with no luck until recently.
To many of you this species is not that uncommon, but up here in Norway it is a rare sight. Oddly enough it seems to be occurring quite often in the Kristiansund area.
Torjus Haukvik Congratulations! You are not the only Norwegian looking for that one! ;)
Terry Griffiths And there you go seen so many of these not unless there mating i don't bother taking photo's.
João Pedro Silva After diving here you'll be fed up with P. faeroensis :)
João Pedro Silva (I do say to my buddies "in case you find a pretty blue nudibranch... don't bother me")
Klas Malmberg Aquatilis Congratulations!
Rob Maller Congratz indeed Christian!!
Christian Skauge Thanks guys! It is always fun to see something "new", and it doesn't happen as often as it used to... way cool :-)
Torjus Haukvik You can try to "forget" some of your sightings, then it will happen more often again..! ;p
Eric van Andel the more you dive the lesser are the special sightings.... :-)
Rob Maller @ Torjus...yes, then all of a sudden it's there!!
Christian Skauge Smart move, guys :-D
Torjus Haukvik Exactly!
Helgi Winther Olsen I know a Faroe Islander looking for this small bastard!
Christian Skauge What?? You should have them all over the place - are they not your national animal?
Helgi Winther Olsen I often wonder if they were named by the Faroes because they are so bloody difficult to find there!
Torjus Haukvik Isn't it the normal way to do it? Name it after a place where it's hard to find? ;)
Christian Skauge Polycera inyourfacia :-)
Helgi Winther Olsen Polycera Whereareyouia
David Kipling Well they're releasing European beavers back into the Welsh countryside, so we'll bring some of these to Gulen and release them in return - given you your breeding population ;) Would you like some
Tritonia lineata as well? A common as muck round here!
Christian Skauge LOL :-) I would trade you a
Berghia norvegica for a
Cuthona caerulea though ;-)
David Kipling Which of the two do you get at Gulen?
Christian Skauge The Berghia - and except for the original discovery in 1939 this is the ONLY place it has been found ;-)
Arne Kuilman Congratulations! These are also very rare in the Netherlands. Polycera quadralineata is very prevalent over here.
Christian Skauge A very strange aeolid found at Gulen Dive Resort, Norway, 09.04.2011, approximately 22 meters. I have no idea about this one! F. verrucosa has been suggested. Any thoughts?
Christian Skauge Sorry, forgot about size - saw them from 2-4 cm long, approximately.
Robert Eriksson F verrucosa, is not likely. Pappilae semmes to be in the anerior part of rhinophores, and cerata to furry. Seems to be pedunculate as well, protruding from sides eather than back... Will thinkmore about this!
Christian Skauge Thanks Robert, we really need help on this one! It's one of the trickiest slugs I've come across in Norway, and I really have no idea what to make of it.
Christian Skauge When I say 'we' it's because I found this on dives with Bjørnar Nygård - he's got some images of them too. But no-one has been able to help us with the identification, so I'm really hanging my hope on all you experts in this group :-)
Bernard Picton Berghia has rhinophores like this, and I think the digestive gland in the cerata branched like this. I only know of tropical and Mediterranean Berghia though, have to look it up.
Christian Skauge Oooh, please do!! That would have been somewhat of a sensation, don't you think?
Bernard Picton http://www.european-marine-life.org/14/photo-berghia-verrucicornis-ml10.php
Christian Skauge Quite similar, but more slender. Ours could be freezing though... Found another one also quite similar -
Anteaeolidiella indica. Still looking into it regarding knobbly-wobbly (correct scientific term, yes?) rhinophores.
http://www.gastropods.com/0/Shell_49710.shtml
João Pedro Silva A few months ago I've seen some photos by Cláudio Brandão of an animal similar to this one. Cláudio, could you post one here please? Lucas Cervera suspected i
t was Spurilla neapolitana but the ones I've found that deep were pinkish. Yet, they vary a lot and those near the surface I've found here were brown (more zooxanthellae?).
Christian Skauge Wow, wait a minute! We DO have one Berghia species in Norway -
Berghia norvegica (Odhner, 1939). I am however completely unable to find a single image online...
Christian Skauge Jussi; take a look at this! Remember the two specimens I gave you last year? This is one of them. Maybe we have a Berghia on our hands, that would be fun! If you have the time, please check your references ;-)
Christian Skauge Is even this one a possibility? Almost the same "kissable lips" in the first picture, and many similartities. Still can't find any info on the rhinophores though...
http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/aeolsang
Christian Skauge A lot of thinking aloud here, please bear with me... After reading up on it, I believe we can rule out Aeolidiella sp. They should have smooth rhinophores. Bernard, your Berghia theory looks stronger and stronger! But - is ist a B. verrucicornis or the (at least online) almost mythical B. norvegica?
Bernard Picton Ha! Look I'll be away for a few days, so can't follow this up. But if Odhner had a Berghia in Norway that sounds good. Do you know there's a database of available names at WoRMS. It's not perfect yet, but a good place to start.
Bernard Picton http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=138718
Christian Skauge Yes, I checked it and there is not much info on this. It seems there are two initial records of it from the 30'ies, and that it has not been seen since. I will place my trust in Jussi, he has the original paperwork at hand, I think :-)
Jussi Evertsen If this is a Berghia, a quick look at the teeth would give us the answer in no time - did anyone collect any specimens? I cant recall seeing it at Gulen in march last year.
Christian Skauge I handed you two specimens when I stopped by in Trondheim in mid-April, 2010. This was one of them :-)
Jussi Evertsen Right, I will have to arrange some workdays at the museum ASAP then :)
Christian Skauge Me like :-)
Jussi Evertsen Well, we have had a go at the small specimen that Christian gave to us here in Trondheim, and we can confirm so far that the rhinophores are papillate and that the arrangement of the cerata are quite distinct. The molecular results puts it toghether with the aeolidiid nudibranchs as a separate species. However, since this is our only specimens we are reluctant to start cutting out the radula since it is so small and fragile, so we will put it on hold until we find more specimens at the workshop in Gulen in the end of March.
Christian Skauge woo-hoo exciting news! I say cut away - we'll find more, I am sure of it :-D
Christian Skauge Have forgotten to update on this post: A couple days before the Nuidbranch Safari at Gulen I did a dive to see if I could find this strange slug again - and lo and behold I did! Not just once - it kept turning up in good numbers all through the safari. We collected several specimens, egg masses and shot some video of it also to capture the rather peculiar behaviour. Jussi & Torkild seems to me more and more sure it is in fact a
Berghia norvegica. We're still awaiting confirmation though, so stay tuned :-)
Robert Eriksson Christian Skauge, here's a comment on my previous comment... After this weekends nudie-frenzy I recalled some long forgotten images of juvenile F. verrucosa. Juvenile F. verrucosa looks almost like the one in your photo (dense furry cerata), but they still have the typical white pigments on rhinophores, oral tentacles and cerata. Sometimes F. verrucosa have wrinkled/knobbly/wobbly rhinophores so they are polymorphic when it comes to the rhinphore structure. So, the only way of ruling out your animal from being a juvenile F. verrucosa is the white pigmentation and the size, and similar looking animals with eggs or eggs in body in the vincinity. Obviously you can always look at radula, but without killing the animal your are indeed confined to white pigmentation and size. Both of which are not the best (stabile) characters...
Christian Skauge Your point being...? The radula will tell us tomorrow, I just got word - but there will be a cold day in a certain place before this is a F. verrucosa... :-)
