Liz Morris Good afternoon. I know this is is a terrible photo, but I spotted this in the background of a Welsh Seasearcher's image. I think it looks very similar to a Caloria elegans I photographed 6 years ago outside of its range in North Wales (confirmed by Bernard Picton. This would be a new site again - can somebody here confidently ID it from this blurry image? Unfortunately there isn't a better one.
João Pedro Silva It is Caloria elegans.
Liz Morris whoop whopp. thank you João Pedro Silva! Bernard Picton, and photographer Paul Slater will be pleased!!
João Pedro Silva The cerata are mostly transparent with a black spot near the tip. The digestive gland seen inside the cerata varies quite a bit. In the individuals I've photographed it ranged from white to red, through orange, cream or yellow. One particular photo from Berlengas, Portugal, even showed several colours along the length of the cerata: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/4784556408/
Liz Morris Wow, that's a pretty one. It's definitely one we should look out for more. Our last record in North Wales was from the North Llyn in 2007, but it must have moved these 20 or so miles somehow so there must be more out there... just not enough eyes looking! Both the 2007 and 2011 records are very similar in colouration, but we will be aware of others. Thanks again Joao :)
João Pedro Silva Although I've found it several times, I only have photos of some 25 individuals so it's not what I would call a common species.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/tags/caloriaelegans/
Tony Gilbert Certainly an interesting one to find, well done Paul Slater. Is it recorded in North Wales, is it not a more southern species in UK?
David Kipling N Wales has a microclimate like the Algarve ;)
João Pedro Silva The Algarve doesn't have a microclimate: it's simply normal to have good weather there :)
Baleal and Peniche do have microclimates.... it could be raining dogs and cats 2km away while it's warm and sunny there (although the reciprocal is more common).
João Pedro Silva One thing I haven't noticed is a geographical pattern in the colour variations.
Tony Gilbert Algave rained for a whole week when I was there a couple of years back. The sea was even coming over the small bar (and light) at Portomao.
It is interesting to see just what sort of nudibranchs are around along the Portugese Med, and Atlantic areas. Its quite a unique mix of species as it seems to be a point of seas.
João Pedro Silva It's true, Tony: you get a mix of Mediterranean and Atlantic species.
João Pedro Silva Oh, to get such bad weather in Portimão is really bad luck. You have to try again :)
Tony Gilbert Yes I should. I think the liveaboard boat had just been announced.
Water was quite cold even for April, I wouldn't fancy diving it in a wet suit at that time.
Lanzarote also has a confluence of waters, with the Canarian Current, and I think many species are under-recorded there. Just need to get some serious sponsorship to dive every day for a year or two!
At least I've Oban in Scotland to look forward to this weekend, and perhaps a few Doto species!The weather is forecast to be 22-24C full sun whole weekend, positively tropical.
João Pedro Silva Semi-dry or drysuit is preferable. The dive center promoting the liveaboard has 7mm semi-dry suits. I usually don't even take mine.
Canaries, Madeira, Azores have a lot different species. Lots of endemic species and subspecies.
João Pedro Silva Actually, the only thing you really need to carry to the dive center is the certification card and your camera. I usually only take my camera, mask, computer and bcd (I love my RecWing).
Liz Morris Ha ha... i misread something and thought you were selling liveaboards in the microclimate of north wales for a minute!! Aparently this isn't the most northern C.elegans record, Bernard told me there were a few in Northern Ireland. But possibly the most northern on the mainland!
Liz Morris Bernard asked me to repost this lovely beast, beautiful Caloria elegans. Rare in the UK I spotted it off North Wales in 2007 and photographed by buddy Alice Lawrence. At the time I had no idea how rare this pretty slug was in the UK. It was recently queried by Bernard Picton as it's only previously had one, possibly two sightings in Wales (1984 & 1995). He said "Otherwise there is just a record from Lundy, one from Donegal and a handful in Northern Ireland. It's not uncommon in the Mediterranean." So, an interesting find confirmed by old photos in our patch :) Just goes to show that we should all keep searching and archive our pictures well (it took me 3 months to dig up this old gem!) :)
João Pedro Silva Never seen in large numbers but it sure is not a rare species here in Portugal. For a while I could only find the "red" variation but now I've dozens of photos with a pale variation, too. I've even found one with the cerata pale in the middle but orange near the tip and at the base:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/4784556408/
Christian Skauge Never seen it as far north as Norway (which makes sense), but found one at Gozo a year and a half ago. Beautiful creature!
Bernard Picton One of my favourites, I'll tell the story some time.
João Pedro Silva Very interesting detail of the lamellated rhinophores. It should be compared with the individuals with papillate rhinophores: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/7456950890/
Richard Yorke Picture of the 'scarce' nudi Caloria elegans. Keep an eye open for it as I think it is probably just under reported. All my pictures from the weekend are available at http://www.richardy.co.uk/LlynMay2012/index.html
Liz Morris nice one richard :)
Liz Morris look out for it around the UK - at the moment there are only records from Lundy, Tremadog Bay, N Llyn, Puffin Island and one in the North East, and a couple in Ireland. I can't believe that it's that under-recorded! A Mediterannean expert has only ever seen 23 individuals in all his nudi hunting, so if we can up the numbers that would be great!
David Kipling What habitats and/or food sources have you found your specimens on Richard and Liz? Good to know where to hunt for it (and yes, I did hear the gauntlet being thrown down to S Wales Seasearch!)
David Kipling I see the 2007 record was at Seasquirt Reef (I'm liking the sound of that already!) at ~ 20m.
Liz Morris I'm not sure - will look over pics and see if I can see a trend in food sources. All three sites were quite different. Seasquirt reef is my favourite local reef :) In fact, not done it since 2007 so worth a revisit to see if it's still squirty! Let me know when you're coming :)
Lucas CerCur Parece Caloria elegans. No obstnate, desde hace un tiempo hay colegas que plantean la sospecha de que lo que en el Mediterraneo se atribuye a esta especie presenta unos rinoforos diferentes a los que caracterizan esta especie originalmente. No aprecio bien como son los de la foto.
Jaime Romero Solo tengo dos fotos y esta es la mejor,está hecha en Lanzarote-Atlantico.,gracias de todas formas.
Jaime Romero de este no estoy seguro
Jaime Romero ni este
Jaime Romero ni este
Lucas CerCur Por Dios!!!!!! Necesito material de esos Felimida (antes Chromodoris)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lucas CerCur Los dos primeros son Felimida luteopunctata y el tercero F. britoi. No obstante, en canarias se describió C. rodomaculata en 1993. Para mi, C. luteopuntata y C. rodomaculata son la misma especie, aunque otros autores no están de acuerdo.
Lucas CerCur La solución es poder compararlos molecularmente, ya que la anatomÃa interna es básicamente igual y las diferencias son cromáticas. Pero llegamos al mismo punto de siempre: ¿variabilidad intraespecifica o "complex species".
Lucas CerCur Por eso, Jaime, si nos pudieras colectar la próxima vez de ambos y fotografiarlos y fijarlos en etanol 96%, nos ayudarÃas mucho.
Jaime Romero Gracias, a ver si vuelvo a bucear he sido operado de una enfermedad grave ,espero hacerlo pronto,de todas maneras no es fácil verlas ,un saludo y gracias.
Liz Morris Good afternoon. I know this is is a terrible photo, but I spotted this in the background of a Welsh Seasearcher's image. I think it looks very similar to a Caloria elegans I photographed 6 years ago outside of its range in North Wales (confirmed by Bernard Picton. This would be a new site again - can somebody here confidently ID it from this blurry image? Unfortunately there isn't a better one.
João Pedro Silva It is Caloria elegans.
Liz Morris whoop whopp. thank you João Pedro Silva! Bernard Picton, and photographer Paul Slater will be pleased!!
João Pedro Silva The cerata are mostly transparent with a black spot near the tip. The digestive gland seen inside the cerata varies quite a bit. In the individuals I've photographed it ranged from white to red, through orange, cream or yellow. One particular photo from Berlengas, Portugal, even showed several colours along the length of the cerata: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/4784556408/
Liz Morris Wow, that's a pretty one. It's definitely one we should look out for more. Our last record in North Wales was from the North Llyn in 2007, but it must have moved these 20 or so miles somehow so there must be more out there... just not enough eyes looking! Both the 2007 and 2011 records are very similar in colouration, but we will be aware of others. Thanks again Joao :)
João Pedro Silva Although I've found it several times, I only have photos of some 25 individuals so it's not what I would call a common species.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/tags/caloriaelegans/
Tony Gilbert Certainly an interesting one to find, well done Paul Slater. Is it recorded in North Wales, is it not a more southern species in UK?
David Kipling N Wales has a microclimate like the Algarve ;)
João Pedro Silva The Algarve doesn't have a microclimate: it's simply normal to have good weather there :)
Baleal and Peniche do have microclimates.... it could be raining dogs and cats 2km away while it's warm and sunny there (although the reciprocal is more common).
João Pedro Silva One thing I haven't noticed is a geographical pattern in the colour variations.
Tony Gilbert Algave rained for a whole week when I was there a couple of years back. The sea was even coming over the small bar (and light) at Portomao.
It is interesting to see just what sort of nudibranchs are around along the Portugese Med, and Atlantic areas. Its quite a unique mix of species as it seems to be a point of seas.
João Pedro Silva It's true, Tony: you get a mix of Mediterranean and Atlantic species.
João Pedro Silva Oh, to get such bad weather in Portimão is really bad luck. You have to try again :)
Tony Gilbert Yes I should. I think the liveaboard boat had just been announced.
Water was quite cold even for April, I wouldn't fancy diving it in a wet suit at that time.
Lanzarote also has a confluence of waters, with the Canarian Current, and I think many species are under-recorded there. Just need to get some serious sponsorship to dive every day for a year or two!
At least I've Oban in Scotland to look forward to this weekend, and perhaps a few Doto species!The weather is forecast to be 22-24C full sun whole weekend, positively tropical.
João Pedro Silva Semi-dry or drysuit is preferable. The dive center promoting the liveaboard has 7mm semi-dry suits. I usually don't even take mine.
Canaries, Madeira, Azores have a lot different species. Lots of endemic species and subspecies.
João Pedro Silva Actually, the only thing you really need to carry to the dive center is the certification card and your camera. I usually only take my camera, mask, computer and bcd (I love my RecWing).
Liz Morris Ha ha... i misread something and thought you were selling liveaboards in the microclimate of north wales for a minute!! Aparently this isn't the most northern C.elegans record, Bernard told me there were a few in Northern Ireland. But possibly the most northern on the mainland!
Egidio Trainito Jim Anderson, Bernard Picton, and all the people in the group, I would like to have your opinion about the nudibranch I am posting. My opinion is that it is NOT Caloria elegant, but a sibling species: please look at the rhinophores (in C.elegans they're smooth), at the colour pattern of head and tentacles and at colour and assemblage of cerata. Thank you all.
João Pedro Silva I've got several shots of C. elegans, both with lighter cerata and with red cerata. I'm convinced it depends on the diet.
The rhinophores arent's completely smooth in neither colour forms I find here in Portugal:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/7408953742/
João Pedro Silva Same with yellow digestive gland visible inside the cerata: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/5654832216/
João Pedro Silva But the most striking is this one where the digestive gland colour varies along the length of the cerata:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/4784556408/
João Pedro Silva All my photos of C. elegans can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/tags/caloriaelegans/
O Gajo Dos Olivais I noticed that the rinophores aren't smooth. Maybe the "definition" of smooth is not quite right :) All pictures I've seen from JPSilva and others, showed the rinophores with those "bumps". But they are not lameled...
João Pedro Silva They appear to have small translucent papillae more conspicuous on the anterior side where there's white pigment.
Egidio Trainito Papillae are not lamellae, the first ones are only on the front side the second ones are only on the rear side. Is this in the variability of the species? I don't think so. The original description of C.elegans and following papers such as Schmekl and Portmann say smooth rhinophores. My records of C.elegans are all quite different than this (which appeared in recent years) and all with smooth rhinophores. Is there anybody in the world willing to study some specimen I have collected?
Bernard Picton Egidio, you don't say where the picture was taken? I agree, these rhinophores are not like the animals I've seen in the UK and Ireland, where the rhinophores have rounded papillae. They are not smooth. When I have seen Caloria elegans in the Mediterranean they have been much smaller, so perhaps the papillae develop in larger animals.
Your animal seems to have lamellae on the rear side of the rhinophores, which is certainly odd.
I just changed the photo on my site to a close-up. http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/photo.asp?item=bep2_8297
Egidio Trainito Bernard, the photo was taken in Sardinia and this form of nudibranch appeared in recent years: while C.elegans is still present but non common, this has become very common in the places where I commonly dive, north east coast of Sardinia. It happened to me to find the two forms in the same dive spot. What looks strange to me are the lamellae on the rear side of the rhinophores, which I have never seen on C.elegans.
Egidio Trainito Bernard, I've looked at your photo and I've never seen in the Mediterranean C.elegans so clear and developed papillae. Quite strange to me.
Bernard Picton Very interesting. If you look at SSF there are quite a few photos, some look as though they may have lamellate rhinophores. It could be that we are dealing with several species here. It should be easily possible to resolve this with DNA sequences. If you have two things in the same place they are "sympatric" which should mean complete genetic isolation. Slightly more tricky if our UK ones are different, because they could be isolated by distance. Even then CO1 (barcoding) sequences in nudibranchs seem to be reliably distinguishing species.
http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/caloeleg
Egidio Trainito Bernard, this is exactly what I am thinking of: I have collected some specimen of the false Caloria and as soon as I am able to collect the true Caloria I will send them for a DNA test to Genoa university. Your opinion conforts me.
João Pedro Silva Re-checked some of my photos and found some of these Caloria elegans with distinctively lamellate rhinophores:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6721622707/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6721625063/
All have red digestive gland. However, some with red digestive gland have papillae and not lamellae on the rhinophores.
Bernard Picton I think you need to change the text in the book, this must be a second species. Of course, we already have two names available, Caloria maculata with type locality in Italy (the lamellate-rhinophored one?) and Caloria elegans with type locality South coast of England. As I wrote the paper which synonymised them this is a bit of an embarassment!! :-)
Bernard Picton One thing to remember is that rhinophores do seem to have considerable evolutionary plasticity. Flabellina pedata and F. affinis, Flabellina trilineata and Flabellina lineata...
http://californiadiver.com/flabellina-trilineata-nudibranch/
João Pedro Silva The photos we have on the book for Caloria elegans all have papillate rhinophores :)
Bernard Picton I think the text might include these ones a bit?
Bernard Picton I suspect that Aeolids are derived from an ancestor which had lamellate rhinophores, so the smooth state would then be a simplification and likely to happen many times.
Lucas CerCur I agree with this view.
Lucas CerCur So, Caloria elegans....another case of study.
João Pedro Silva Last year I collected one F. annulicornis and one Caloria elegans into the same jar. At the end of the dive I had F. annulicornis and lots of cerata from C. elegans. Not sure if the individual in this photo is just accidentally behind C. krohni or it's actually stalking it.
Egidio Trainito João Pedro Silva, Bernard Picton I've done a very rough research on the web about C.elegans pictures to verify if it was possible to draw a map of distribution of the three different forms of "Caloria elegans". The results are encouraging to think of more than one species. I repeat it is a very rough effort. The red line indicates the area of smooth rhinophores, the green the papillatae, and the blue the lamellatae.
Bernard Picton aren't you interested in receiving some specimens of the lamellatae one to study them?
David Kipling Can anyone give suggestions as to types of habitat/food on which to look for Caloria elegans? It's been recorded in N Wales, and we're now going to be on the look-out for it in S Wales (a little bit of friendly north-south rivalry!).
Any hints as to where to look for it (no comments like "In the Mediterranean" please!) would be very helpful. MarLIN/Habitas makes the following comment: "Found amongst the hydroids Nemertesia ramosa, Plumularia setacea and Halecium halecinum growing on rocks and other hard inorganic substrata."
Thanks!
João Pedro Silva If you care to identify all the hydroids in these photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/tags/caloriaelegans/
I'd add ti the MarLIN/Habitas comment that I usually find them in poorly lit places like small holes, crevices or even small caves.
Richard Yorke I would very much like you to identify the one with it in http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6029926038/ as this looks very like http://richardy.co.uk/Scillies/content/120504_110652_E-520_large.html which I took earlier this year in the Scillies and has experts arguing over its identity.
David Kipling Thanks João Pedro!
João Pedro Silva Richard Yorke, I don't think C. elegans is feeding on that Alcyonium but on smaller hydroids growing in between. There's another shot of that individual: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6029368489/
Richard Yorke It was the Alcyonium I was interested in, in fact over hear there is still discussion as to whether my picture is a) Stolonifera or b) Alcyonacea, though I side with you. Can you take the identification any further for us please? I am the one to identify the latest Caloria elegans in North Wales so I am fine with that.
João Pedro Silva I think those may be Alcyonium coralloides but I'm really far from being an expert on Cnidaria.
Richard Yorke Thanks, that is not the first time that has been mentioned. Not something we are used to seeing up here!
João Pedro Silva It's very common here... actually, it's probably the most common Alcyonium although not always very interesting as a photographic subject.
João Pedro Silva As for the "in the Mediterranean" comments... why venture into the Mediterranean when you can get them in Portugal? :)
There are still openings for next month's nudibranch safari in the Algarve: https://www.facebook.com/events/322010314535510/
David Kipling Lalalalalala not listening not listening <<fingers in ears>>
Liz Morris João Pedro Silva, that looks awesome! Wish I was free! Yes, Richard Yorke found another Caloria elegans in North Wales last weekend - so we are up one record in 2007, one in 2011 and one in 2012. So David Kipling has challenged the south welsh Seasearchers to find it down there too. We'll let you know how we get on no doubt. Maybe it is just under-recorded. Facebook is great for raising awareness of species. :)
João Pedro Silva I'm often asked if the apparent expansion of certain species is due to global warming. It may or may not be due to that or to human intervention but I suspect it may be due to more awareness and also to the increasing availability (and quality) of underwater photographic equipment.
João Pedro Silva Oh, make sure you get some good shots of the rhinophores. Apparently the ones with lighter cerata have longer and smoother rhinophores (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6238739494/) and the ones with darker cerata have shorter and rougher rhinophores (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6181899320/).
Richard Yorke Those two pictures of mine were of separate animals, so it is 2 more for the records for North Wales!
João Pedro Silva Another Glaucidae one can find in Portugal, Caloria elegans varies quite a bit. Besides the black ring just under the cnidosac, the cerata can be white, red, orange, yellow, beige or almost black. An probably anything in between, too. In this particular individual, the cerata even show some color variation along their length.
Henrique Nascimento CatarinaCaloria elegans
Portugal - Sesimbra
201207
Bob Whorton Very nicely done, Henrique :)
Henrique Nascimento Catarina Thanks Bob Whorton..... means a lot to me have this kind of comments, I start to photograf underwater less than a year with reflex camera, so, Thank You so much.. :)
Henrique Nascimento Catarina Thnaks to all the others for the Likes :)
Liz Morris Another successful Seasearch weekend! Well done guys for those of you who got into the water from the shore on Saturday and avoided the wind. And sounds like St Tuds was fab :) Another record of our favourite scarce nudi Caloria elegans from Richard Yorke (3rd since 2007). Well done guys!! Looking out on Sunday, I was very very jealous not to be in the water. Still, a beautiful huge red kite gave me a nice display near Aberffraw instead :)
Paula Lightfoot Advice please! A professional photographer has asked me to collect nudibranchs so he can photograph them for a book about Yorkshire wildlife. Problem is, we dive in the evenings and it's dark when we get back so he'd have to keep them in a tank overnight and photograph them the next day. Is this ok to do?
Marco Faasse It is important to put them in clean seawater without algae (which consume oxygen at night) or other organisms and to keep them cool. Some people keep them in the fridge overnight. Better too cold than too warm.
João Pedro Silva Near the vegetables in your fridge, it's cold enough but not too cold.
Marco Faasse Yes, the 'warmest' part of the fridge :-)
Brendan Oonk Keep in mind that nudis are carnivorous. There are examples of the number of nudis in the container going down, without them escaping .... :(
Paula Lightfoot Thanks very much - I will make sure the photographer knows this and can keep them in the necessary conditions before I agree to do it. He has a background working in conservation/ecology so I think he will do what's necessary. I would only collect the ones that are present in large numbers at the moment e.g. Janolus and Polycera.
João Pedro Silva Brendan Oonk, I found out that while collecting Caloria elegans and Facelina annulicornis to the same jar... at the end of the dive there was F. annulicornis and some cerata of C. elegans.
João Pedro Silva Paula Lightfoot, take a small cooler with you to carry the nudibranchs back home. Don't know how hot it's there right now but they don't handle high temperatures too well (air temp. here today was 37ºC).
Ian Smith In the hot weather of June & July I found the electronic coolbox sold at Aldi for £35 was very good for keeping stuff alive on the way home in another wise roasting car. Also used to keep ice blocks cool on outward journey for use in a non-electronic coolbox on return journey. Works off mains & cigarette lighter in car. In my car only works when motor is running - guards against flattening battery. I try to park in shade. If non-smoker, make sure you learn how to start the current - cig lighter needs pressing in before pulling out - on my first outward journey the box didn't work because I hadn't realised this. I find rectangular low-fat spread boxes fit nicely - you can separate specimens in them against mutual predation and decay of anything that dies. 250g boxes have nearly same surface area as 500g, and can get more in the coolbox - I use a mixture. Also useful if staying away overnight, but fan is noisy so need mains socket away from bed.
Ian Smith Paula you mentioned Janolus. J. cristatus is notorious for shedding its cerata. Needs very gentle handling and photographing ASAP.
Peter H van Bragt I'm sure there must be heaps of in situ underwater pics available. Why not use these???????
Paula Lightfoot I didn't know that about Janolus very useful advice thank you. Yes Peter there are loads of very high quality in situ photos (not least in this group!) but I think the photographer wants it to be all his own work, and obviously they must all be taken in Yorkshire. Still, I think I will suggest having a supplementary page of nudi/marine life photos taken by others in Yorkshire as this will give greater diversity of species covered and less chance of harming wildlife.
David Kipling Can anyone give suggestions as to types of habitat/food on which to look for Caloria elegans? It's been recorded in N Wales, and we're now going to be on the look-out for it in S Wales (a little bit of friendly north-south rivalry!).
Any hints as to where to look for it (no comments like "In the Mediterranean" please!) would be very helpful. MarLIN/Habitas makes the following comment: "Found amongst the hydroids Nemertesia ramosa, Plumularia setacea and Halecium halecinum growing on rocks and other hard inorganic substrata."
Thanks!
João Pedro Silva If you care to identify all the hydroids in these photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/tags/caloriaelegans/
I'd add ti the MarLIN/Habitas comment that I usually find them in poorly lit places like small holes, crevices or even small caves.
Richard Yorke I would very much like you to identify the one with it in http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6029926038/ as this looks very like http://richardy.co.uk/Scillies/content/120504_110652_E-520_large.html which I took earlier this year in the Scillies and has experts arguing over its identity.
David Kipling Thanks João Pedro!
João Pedro Silva Richard Yorke, I don't think C. elegans is feeding on that Alcyonium but on smaller hydroids growing in between. There's another shot of that individual: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6029368489/
Richard Yorke It was the Alcyonium I was interested in, in fact over hear there is still discussion as to whether my picture is a) Stolonifera or b) Alcyonacea, though I side with you. Can you take the identification any further for us please? I am the one to identify the latest Caloria elegans in North Wales so I am fine with that.
João Pedro Silva I think those may be Alcyonium coralloides but I'm really far from being an expert on Cnidaria.
Richard Yorke Thanks, that is not the first time that has been mentioned. Not something we are used to seeing up here!
João Pedro Silva It's very common here... actually, it's probably the most common Alcyonium although not always very interesting as a photographic subject.
João Pedro Silva As for the "in the Mediterranean" comments... why venture into the Mediterranean when you can get them in Portugal? :)
There are still openings for next month's nudibranch safari in the Algarve: https://www.facebook.com/events/322010314535510/
David Kipling Lalalalalala not listening not listening <<fingers in ears>>
Liz Morris João Pedro Silva, that looks awesome! Wish I was free! Yes, Richard Yorke found another Caloria elegans in North Wales last weekend - so we are up one record in 2007, one in 2011 and one in 2012. So David Kipling has challenged the south welsh Seasearchers to find it down there too. We'll let you know how we get on no doubt. Maybe it is just under-recorded. Facebook is great for raising awareness of species. :)
João Pedro Silva I'm often asked if the apparent expansion of certain species is due to global warming. It may or may not be due to that or to human intervention but I suspect it may be due to more awareness and also to the increasing availability (and quality) of underwater photographic equipment.
João Pedro Silva Oh, make sure you get some good shots of the rhinophores. Apparently the ones with lighter cerata have longer and smoother rhinophores (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6238739494/) and the ones with darker cerata have shorter and rougher rhinophores (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpsilva1971/6181899320/).
Richard Yorke Those two pictures of mine were of separate animals, so it is 2 more for the records for North Wales!
Christian Skauge Heavily photoshopped... can anyone guess the species? ha ha :-D
Klas Malmberg Aquatilis Flebellina pedata???
Gonçalo CaladoCaloria elegans?
João Pedro SilvaFlabellina pedata :) But I cheated: print screen -> photoshop -> inverted. Before that I tried the "stare for 15 seconds and then blink while looking at the wall" but it looked a bit pale :)
Christian Skauge haha very good João! Kudos to Klas for getting it right so quickly :-)
Erwin Koehler at
http://www.nudipixel.net/species/caloria_sp/
is the note: Caloria was synonymised under Phidiana in Miller
I searched the web with google, I cannot find any reference for this,
everywhere is Caloria Trinchese, 1888 accepted!
it must be brandnew...
João Pedro Silva Considering Nudipixel's update rate, I wouldn't count on it. But it still includes Caloria elegans: http://www.nudipixel.net/species/caloria_elegans/
Erwin Koehler Gary McDonald sent a copy to me yesterday, it is very old, not brandnew:
Miller, M.C. (1974) Aeolid nudibranchs (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) of the family Glaucidae from New Zealand waters. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 54: 33-61.
I will continue using Caloria Trinchese, 1888