Rare finds
Mar 12, 2019 12:38:03 #
Max Bottomtime
Loc: Torrance, California
I've been lucky, or very observant to find tiny animals that most divers miss. Occasionally, we get lucky and find larger animals that have been missed. In 2016, Merry found a nudibranch that we didn't recognize. It was about 50mm long and bright orange. How could we miss seeing this nudi before? It turned out to be an extremely rare find. Less than a handful of Thordisa rubescens had ever been found since it was first described in 1981. Thirty-five years later, we hit the jackpot.
I sent Merry's photo to the expert who first identified the nudi. He was thrilled to see they were still around. Merry and I went back to the reef the next day and found a pair of Thordisa rubescens tailing, and later found mating pairs and individuals laying eggs. We have since found more eggs and a couple of individuals on a reef two miles away, and Wei Wei Gao found some in La Jolla, one hundred miles south. It is an amazing comeback.
Noumeaella rubrofasciata is a tiny nudibranch that had been seen once at Catalina Island with no reported findings along the mainland coast. I found one a few years ago, then last year I found four more on a nearby reef. I haven't found any since and there have been no other reported sightings.
Also in 2016, I found a flatworm that had never been identified. I sent photos to Leslie Harris at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. She gave it a temporary identification as Stylochus sp. but told me to collect a sample for her for DNA testing. Naturally, I have never found another one and there have been no other sightings.
I sent Merry's photo to the expert who first identified the nudi. He was thrilled to see they were still around. Merry and I went back to the reef the next day and found a pair of Thordisa rubescens tailing, and later found mating pairs and individuals laying eggs. We have since found more eggs and a couple of individuals on a reef two miles away, and Wei Wei Gao found some in La Jolla, one hundred miles south. It is an amazing comeback.
Noumeaella rubrofasciata is a tiny nudibranch that had been seen once at Catalina Island with no reported findings along the mainland coast. I found one a few years ago, then last year I found four more on a nearby reef. I haven't found any since and there have been no other reported sightings.
Also in 2016, I found a flatworm that had never been identified. I sent photos to Leslie Harris at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. She gave it a temporary identification as Stylochus sp. but told me to collect a sample for her for DNA testing. Naturally, I have never found another one and there have been no other sightings.
Thordisa rubescens
Tailing
Mating
Laying eggs
Egg coil
Noumeaella rubrofasciata
Noumeaella rubrofasciata
Stylochus sp.
Stylochus sp.
Mar 12, 2019 20:49:49 #
Mar 13, 2019 05:48:17 #
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