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Okenia elegans

(Leuckart, 1828)


Angela Gall Unusual sea slug Okenia elegans photographed by Chris Whitworth off St Agnes last weekend - a first for the north coast of Cornwall perhaps

Message posted on Seasearch Cornwall on 17 Jun 2012
Tim Nicholson Hi all. I identified this as okenia elegans, but is does seem somewhat different to others I have similarly identified. Am I correct?

Tim Nicholson Isle of Man (again!)

David Kipling Yes, I would have thought so. It's so unusual and striking that there's really little else it could be. I've seen pictures of it with slightly different colour distributions so I think it's a bit variable. Although this one looks like its pretending to be an anemone!

Tim Nicholson Thanks David. I know what you mean. It took me a few seconds to even realise it was a nudi!

Bernard Picton Large ones seem to develop a lot of red on the upper body, this coloration is more typical of smaller individuals. It is holding its body in a funny shape though!!

Message posted on NE Atlantic Nudibranchs on 08 Oct 2013
George Brown Okenia elegans, about 5mm long. Only spotted due to the red tips to its rhinophores. Found crawling over maerl just outside Tingwall Harbour on the north coast of Mainland, Orkney. Depth 5.5 metres.

Message posted on NE Atlantic Nudibranchs on 03 Aug 2013
Tamsyn MAnn Yay, finally seen one of these! Okenia elegans... Unfortunately no strobe as batteries ran out... Doh!

Rob Maller Yea... but you've got it !!

João Pedro Silva I think you've handled Murphy's Laws quite well :) I only knew that other corolary applied to nudibranchs: The rarest species appear that day you decided to use a wide angle lens.

Rob Maller I know that too well... :)

João Pedro Silva Unfortunately I also know that other: That species you have only seen once appear just after you flooded your camera... and your buddy decided to use a wide angle lens.

Tamsyn MAnn Oh no... dreadful! But I am having a chuckle...sorry!!

Message posted on NE Atlantic Nudibranchs on 02 Jun 2012
Sarah Bowen Following on from an earlier thread talking about Tritonia hombergi/plebia; here's one that was bugging me from the Scillies in May 2010. From memory he was no more than about 5cms long, 22 m water and on a particularly rich site where we found Okenia elegans and Doris sticta as well. At the time we went for small Tritonia hombergi, but I'm now thinking plebia because of the 6 (or in this case 7) oral tentacles. What do others think?

Jim Anderson At that size and colour etc. I'd say hombergii

Christian Skauge Definitely T. plebeia in my opinion. T. hombergi has a different gob altogether - look at this image (pardon the looong link - must try and fix that on my homepage): http://www.undervannsfoto.no/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage99.tpl&product_id=274&category_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=224&item_num=3&total_items=3

Bernard Picton Sarah do you really mean 5 cm - looking at the bryozoan I would think it was smaller than that. I've seen this coloration in T. hombergi, have we got photographs of small ones?

Message posted on NE Atlantic Nudibranchs on 04 Feb 2012
David Kipling Contrary to what Dawn Watson thinks, I do not have a supply of model nudibranchs that I take with me on dives ;) These are from the National Museum here in Wales, made of Fimo I think!

Christian Skauge I have a kit like this, bought on eBay from Japan :-)

João Pedro Silva My wife makes bijoux with Fimo professionally and I've been trying (for ages!) to convince her to do these models with the portuguese species.

Christian Skauge http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1550708580196&set=a.1157771997027.24269.1609584836&type=3&theater

João Pedro Silva Hurrah! I've shown my wife these models and she asked me to pick 6 species for her to make until June :)

Bernard Picton Tell your wife it's a very noble tradition. These glass models were traded widely and many museums still have some. There was a conference about them in recent years in Dublin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Rudolf_Blaschka

Bernard Picton Christian Skauge, for your contact who wanted Glaucus, NM Wales have a Blaschka one!! http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/galleries/blaschka/

Christian Skauge Do you have dates for June? Been away a few days (Nudibranch Safari, of course!) and haven't paid much attn to FB...

Bernard Picton Or July?

Christian Skauge Fantastic glass figures - I want one!!

Bernard Picton I doubt if you can afford one, I'm afraid. But if you visit Ireland we could try and get to see the ones in National Museum of Ireland. It was closed to the public, but I have contacts. http://www.ucd.ie/blaschka/

Christian Skauge Will do! I think I'll have to steal one, they seem a bit pricy... :-D

Bernard Picton Did you find a price?

João Pedro Silva Sorry, I don't have dates yet :(

João Pedro Silva I've sent a list of 8 species so she can pick 6: Flabellina babai, Hypselodoris villafranca (these are so common they are a "must"), Armina maculata, Marionia blainvillea, Diaphorodoris luteocincta, Dondice banyulensis, Chromodoris luteorosea, Cadlina pellucida. If these turn out ok I'm counting on you to convince her to the all the NE Atlantic species :)

David Kipling Okenia elegans of course!

Christian Skauge @ Bernard: Found no price, just a wild guess :-)

Gonçalo Calado Same with algarvian typical pastery http://www.imagesofportugal.net/media/471cd934-bdc1-11e0-acb5-57e8dc34769b-algarve-s-traditional-pastry-portugal

João Pedro Silva I usually describe Platydoris argo as a pancake orange underneath with sugar on top.

Bernard Picton Now don't go there... Seasearch keep inventing common names for things, Amphilectus fucorum = shredded carrot sponge - trouble is they are always food related...

Bernard Picton Pentapora was widely called ross coral (I think a typo for rose) but they invented potato crisp bryozoan....

Christian Skauge hahaha I always get hungry when finding a sea sausage :)

João Pedro Silva All the nudibranchs here in Portugal share on common name: "nudibranch". Except for Peltodoris atromaculata: "vaquinha suíça" (literally, "swiss cow", a dairy Holstein breed cow).

Becky Hitchin I have some plastic nudibranchs from Japan :)

David Kipling I have to say that I am disappointed that the National Museum (which tends to focus on welsh natural history) has a display of purely tropical nudibranchs! I think we should get João Pedro Silva's wife to make an extravagant set of NE Atlantic nudibranchs to replace them, to show that the Atlantic has species that can easily rival those in the tropics.

David Kipling Although we might have to make the Dotos a bit larger-than-life!

Message posted on NE Atlantic Nudibranchs on 29 Mar 2012
Kerry Lewis Here's a Cuthona caerulea.... and a Cuthona somethingelsus maybe? I know they aren't great shots, but any offers?

David Kipling Yes, Cuthona viridis. Bright green ceratal contents give it away (as name hints).

Kerry Lewis I wondered that... I hoped that! Two new ones! :-)

Kerry Lewis Richie West how did your piccies of these two come out?

Richie West I still haven't gone through my pics from Scotland yet, that's how far behind I am with my photos... I'll have a look now xx

David Kipling You do realise that pretty much everyone on the survey saw Cuthona caerulea apart from Sarah? She's not happy!

Kerry Lewis Sarah, if it's any consolation, I have the same relationship with Okenia.

David Kipling Doesn't help that the only time I've seen this species underwater was on the fish survey 4 years ago, and I failed to show it to my buddy at the time :(

Richie West Cuthona caerulea was clear in my pic Kerry but C. viridis was out of focus, your photos were better

David Kipling Oh so Richie saw it as well ... !!!

Kerry Lewis Well... to be fair, I don't think Richie had the foggiest what I was pointing at... he just stuck his camera in vaguely the right direction and got lucky...

Richie West As usual though David I had no idea what I was looking at until Kerry told me on the surface

Richie West (she's always right lol)

David Kipling Even when she's not!

Richie West *gasps!* perish the thought

Kerry Lewis Always when I'm not.

Erin Smyth Pretty.. . . .

Richie West I may yet be able to crochet Sarah her very own Cuthona collection

David Kipling Depends if you want her to fill it with lead shot and chuck it at you!

Richie West I already have a very hush-hush order from Kerry for an Okenia elegans for her bcd pocket, although I think Kate and Aran's plasticine version will take some beating.

Richie West After the crochet blouse with matching headband from my new pattern book that is

Sarah Bowen You lot will get chucked out of this group for hijacking perfectly sensible threads with this sort of craft nonsense!!! But yes please, I'd love a crochet Cuthona!

Richie West I will pay particular attention to the diagnostic features with my crochet to make sure it's on-topic

Kate Lock Well done Kerry Lewis - definate nudibranch queen award. I have just checked the Skomer MNR nudibranch list and neither of these species have been officially recorded in the Reserve before!! (although it looks like David Kipling is claiming to above he did not tell us and obviously did not complete a form!!)..... Would you mind doing an Observer form for the dive so we can have these as official records :)

David Kipling My spot was on the 2009 fish survey on Rye Rocks, and I remember someone who shall remain nameless saying "oh no, I don't want a Seasearch form done for the dive, we've done Rye Rocks to death" or something to that effect ;)

Erin Smyth Do you think if we made the surveys for nudibranchs people would hunt for and photograph fish?! ;-)

Message posted on Seasearch Identifications on 24 Jul 2013
Kate Lock http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150639837926707&set=oa.348636181851184&type=1&ref=nf

Kate Lock Bad vis and can't go diving?? here is the latest craze!! Plasticine nudibranch modelling and 'Okenia elegans attack of T rex and Pterodactyl' in my 8 years old Dino movie........

João Pedro Silva Could you make the photo public, Kate? Otherwise all we can do is to imagine how it's like.

Liz Morris Wow, that is awesome :) Reminds me of Lisa Brownings slugs - I think she used some slimey stuff instead of fimo though. And the prize for most creative Seasearch co-ordinator goes to Kate Lock!!

Message posted on NE Atlantic Nudibranchs on 14 Apr 2012
Taxonomy
Animalia (Kingdom)
  Mollusca (Phylum)
    Gastropoda (Class)
      Heterobranchia (Subclass)
        Opisthobranchia (Infraclass)
          Nudibranchia (Order)
            Euctenidiacea (Suborder)
              Doridacea (Infraorder)
                Onchidoridoidea (Superfamily)
                  Goniodorididae (Family)
                    Okenia (Genus)
                      Okenia elegans (Species)
Associated Species