Amphilectus fucorum

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!

Becky Hitchin Can anyone shed some light on this sponge from Orkney? In situ photos and some (not brilliant) spicule photos. From in situ morphology, we've been putting forth Amphilectus fucorum and Halichondria panicea as probable IDs, and the "sponginess" of the sample we took the other day did feel like Halichondria. But when looking at the spicules, the majority of unbroken ones are tylostyles, sometimes with more complex bumps than just a single rounded ending. No microscleres. Bernard Picton, Jade Berman, any ideas? I'm going to try and get some sections of our sample tomorrow.

Bernard Picton I call this Hymeniacidon kitchingi.

Becky Hitchin Oooo. Even with tylostyles?

Bernard Picton I think so. Hymeniacidon species seem to get these irregular tylostyles - swellings but not on all the styles. They are rather pronounced in this one, but I need to take a look at a prep at work.

Becky Hitchin Thanks Bernard, thats really interesting, Joanne Porter and Rachel Shucksmith will be equally interested, I expect

Rachel Shucksmith that is interesting, if anybody wants anymore pieces removed we are diving here tomorrow and again next weekend....

Joanne Porter Exciting stuff Becky Hitchin better make sure we get that onto the seasearch forms.