ΔημήτÏης ΠουÏσανίδης Details of the branches of the Med slug Umbraculum umbraculum. This is not a crop !
Canon 50D + Canon 100mm 2.8 in Aquatica housing with single YS110 strobe.
Iso 100 f11 @ 1/100 ..
Ken Thongpila Interesting shot and nice details..
ΔημήτÏης ΠουÏσανίδης Thanks Ken !
Erling Svensen And what about this 10 cm big Pleurobranchus membranaceus? I have never, never seen anything like it. Before I have seen some that were 2 - 3 cm big, but 10 cm - never. I have a feeling that he have been out swimming. The snail was laying upside down on the seabead.
Tony Gilbert These are quite large Pleurobranchs, and are probably locally abundant within W. Scotland, where we've seen them in sea lochs. Their egg rings form a large spiral. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyjgilbert-images/3929313603/in/set-72157630248242222
Not sure of the distribution for these, but further south from Med. to Canary Is., you get the Umbraculum umbraculum, which can grow to about the same size.
Francesco Benedetto Pranzo tra un gruppo di "Hermodice carunculata" - "Umbraculum umbraculum"
S.M. la Scala (Acireale) Catania - prof. 16 metri c.a.
* Il vermocane (Hermodice carunculata) detto anche "vermecane", "verme cane", "verme di fuoco" o "verme di mare", è un verme marino errante appartenente alla classe dei Policheti. Vive sui fondali marini, soprattutto rocciosi, dei mari tropicali e sub-tropicali, Mediterraneo compreso. Specialmente nei fondali mediterranei si può trovare a basse profondità (a partire da 7 metri circa) nascosto tra gli scogli o rasente ad essi. Si può osservare quasi esclusivamente nelle ore diurne. È dotato di setole urticanti e, se infastidito o anche urtato inavvertitamente, può infliggere dolorosissime irritazioni lanciando gli aghi a uncino verso la minaccia. Si nutre principalmente di sostanze in decomposizione ed altri pesci morti. Non è raro trovarne un gruppetto mentre si nutre di un pesce morto. Se ne trovano sia molto piccoli, di pochi centimetri di lunghezza fino a 30 centimetri.
* L'Umbraculum umbraculum o Umbraculum Mediterraneum, e' certamente uno fra i più strani molluschi Opistobranchi presente nei nostri mari, appartiene all’Ordine Notaspidei, molluschi caratterizzati dalle branchie laterali e dalla conchiglia ridotta, molto spesso interna o addirittura assente. Poco conosciuto per via della sua relativa rarità e delle prevalenti abitudini notturne, l’Umbraculum vive abitualmente nell’ambiente del coralligeno, dove abbondano le spugne di cui si nutre, ma frequenta anche i fondali sabbiosi e detritici profondi. Ha una distribuzione molto ampia che comprende l’Oceano Atlantico orientale, il Pacifico e l’Oceano Indiano. Inconfondibile per via dell’aspetto particolare che lo contraddistingue, l’animale presenta un corpo massiccio e bombato con un piede carnoso, largo e diviso nella parte anteriore. Il mantello e' interamente ricoperto da grandi papille arrotondate simili a verruche. Sul dorso ha una conchiglia molto evidente, che ricorda, nella forma, una Patella. La conchiglia, molto piccola rispetto al corpo dell’animale e inadeguata alla sua protezione, è sempre ricoperta di organismi quali alghe, piccole anemoni e spugne. Sotto la conchiglia, nella parte anteriore, si trovano i due rinofori tubolari (altra caratteristica dei Notaspidei), in mezzo ai quali s’intravedono due puntini neri: gli occhi. Ai lati della conchiglia, sul lato destro, sporge una branchia dall’aspetto piumoso. Il corpo può essere di colorazioni diverse, più comunemente è arancione, ma anche nero o marrone chiaro, le verruche sempre più chiare e traslucide. Si riproduce da agosto a marzo con l’emissione di caratteristici nastri gelatinosi spiralati di colore bianco o giallo. Pur essendo un mollusco di grosse dimensioni - può arrivare a venti centimetri di lunghezza - non è per niente facile riuscire ad individuarlo; quando è immobile in una cavità della roccia, con la conchiglia colonizzata da alghe e il corpo ricoperto dalle verruche, risulta perfettamente mimetizzato nell’ambiente. Durante le ore notturne si hanno più possibilità di scovare il nostro amico fuori dal suo rifugio diurno e, se si ha la fortuna di avvistarlo, non lasciatevi sfuggire l’occasione per scattare qualche bella foto, il signore con il cappellino non si concede spesso.
Patrik GoodUmbraculum umbraculum; Gold Coast Seaway Australia; 9/1/2012; 20:36 hrs; size 55mm; depth 3 metres; 26 degrees water temperature; 2 metres visibility. I love the eyes and the hat.
Gary Cobb The water temp was 26c right?
Gary Cobb Did you know that this species mates face-to-face?!
Patrik Good Yes, Gary, the water temp was 26c. That was in January. I don't record air temperature. I love hearing about the critter's behaviour. Thanks for that piece of information that I didn't know. (Hope you are not pulling my leg). Normally, I think I spend between a minute and three minutes, maximum five minutes with a really exciting new species. A shame really that we are rushing from one to the next. During this particular dive I found 6 new species for the dive site plus this lovely guy that was new to me at the time.
Gary Cobb True is this species mating behavior. Sorry I did not read the date!! All good now. The last report I heard was that the water temp at Caloundra was19-20c.
Joachim Egger sorry!
Capo Vaticano (Scoglio della Galea) | 15m depth | about 12cm long
Gary Cobb This is Umbraculum umbraculum (Lightfoot, 1786)
Joachim Egger oh yes! thanks! thought this was a subspecies of the mediterraneum but now I saw that this is an unaccepted synonym.
thanks so much! learning lots and lots of amazing things in this moment! one of the most interresting groups on FB.
Patrik Good Meeting of the beauty and the beast. Goniobranchus cf. reticulatus, 10/10/2011, 19:02 hrs, Gold Coast Seaway, size about 40mm, depth 3 metres. On the bottom of the picture a bit to the right side there is another branch (might be a bubble shell or a pleurobranchus of some sort) size about 15mm. Can anyone help with ID, please? It will be branch No. 18 in my Gold Coast Seaway Collection that is getting shape at the moment.
Blogie Robillo Very interesting little fella!
Gary Cobb Goniobranchus cf. reticulatus
Patrik Good Thank you, guys. Well, this picture seems to be a bit of a taxonomic challenge. One critter is lacking an ID as of yet and the other one's name should obviously be revised. To me, it doesn't make sense to change the parent species name but not the derived sp. individuals'. I mean how can I call it Chromodoris sp. when it is so similar (and supposedly closely related) to Goniobranchus tinctorius or Goniobranchus reticulatus. Are there any grave taxonomic reasons speaking against me calling it Goniobranchus sp. Sizes by the way are more like 50mm and 25mm (or 35mm - if what we can barely see is the critter's tail).
Bernard Picton Patrik, I think it's fairly clear that the name Chromodoris will now be used only for the longitudinally blue/black striped species, so I'd use Goniobranchus for others if appropriate. There is so much mimicry, though, that it will be a while before the generic names for all the species are certain.
Patrik Good Interesting, Bernard Picton, thank you. (My thoughts were based on a post with the suggestion that I should call the critter Chromodoris sp. by the way). So, you reckon, the species Chromodoris splendida that is endemic to Australia should or will be Goniobranchus splendidus? We still have to wait for its reclassification, don't we?
Gary Cobb I dont think so!
Bernard Picton Johnson & Gosliner say, for Goniobranchus "This clade includes all of the Indo-Pacific species of Chromodoris that are not part of the black-lined, planar egg mass clade, except Chromodoris alternata and Chromodoris ambiguus." They clearly intend us to call all these species Goniobranchus, though of course when they do get DNA sequenced the situation may get more complicated. The trouble with generic names is that they are a hypothesis (about how things are related), so new evidence can result in name changes.
Gary Cobb Yes it is quite confusing Bernard. Unfinished business.
Gary Cobb Is the speculation by the authors proven? I don't think so.
Bernard Picton The trouble with the Linnaean system of naming species is that it's always been unfinished business. With DNA sequence data we are getting closer to a true understanding of relationships, but that means changing the names every so often. Best to remember the specific part, but not get too hung up on the Generic part. Terry Gosliner put almost all the Flabellinidae into a single genus many years back, but there will certainly be several once they get sequenced. Then we'll have to dig Coryphella out again.
Erwin Koehler Dayrat & Gosliner, 2005 suggested using the family name,
so this one would be Chromodorididae sp.
Erwin Koehler I like to come back to the small one: how does
Umbraculum umbraculum look like in your region?
Patrik Good Thanks Erwin Koehler, interesting thoughts. The small critter seems to have a hat like Umbraculum umbraculum. But the distinctive white dots on the mantle, the skin pattern and size remind me more of Pleurobranchaea maculata. What are your thoughts on calling it Pleurobranchaea cf. maculata? Often we find branchs that are crawling out or are stuck halfway in the substrate, so the 'hat' might be just that. But am happy about any suggestions.
Patrik Good Erwin, was Dayrat & Gosliner, 2005 widely accepted in the scientific community and adopted by 'amateur' branchers? I reckon this practice has pros and cons. Not sure yet, wether I am going to implement that or how.
Bernard Picton In relation to this change of names for many Chromodorididae, I'm not sure if you are all aware of the WORMS database.
It is often still flawed, but always worth checking if you want to try and track down original descriptions of species. I see that Phillippe Bouchet of the MNHN in Paris has changed the generic names for most of the Chromodorididae in line with Johnson and Gosliner. Philippe is a top authority, Gosliner too. So If they are both adopting it we all should do as well.
http://www.marinespecies.org
Patrik Good Erwin Koehler, I uploaded a picture of Umbraculum umbraculum. Bernard Picton, I used to check out WoRMS. The database seemed not to be maintained at all any more and I didn't get a reply to an email I wrote a few month back. WoRMS didn't necessarily leave the impression of being the authority that the world of taxonomy is desperately in need of. Anyhow, will check it out again and thanks for the suggestion.
Erwin Koehler Yes, I think the small one looks like Pleurobranchaea maculata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)
