Here is a nice little H. opalescens from a recent dive with friends on the Giant Stride. After a few trips where there wasn't much life the last trip (a week ago) yielded lots of stuff. These guys have been used a lot for studies on classical conditioning. In a strange experiment (NIH, Cellular Neurobiology Lab), nudibranchs were exposed to light in a regular pattern (they were rotated on a turntable) or were exposed to light randomly. Eyes were then tested for RNA and nudibranchs that were trained showed a 5 fold increase in mRNA in the eyes, and was associated with neurotransmitter activation. In any case enjoy and if you want a copy of the paper let me know.
Here is a nice little Babakina festiva from our dive on the Giant Stride (thanks Ana) sitting on the black telescope felt.
Picture #1 from Indonesia
Here is another from our trip with friends on the Sunshine in North Sulawesi.
Here is a nice little Lomanotus from our trip on the Sunshine with friends. Lomanotus are not terribly well studied and species differentiation is complex, relying on the number of ridges on the rhinophore sheath (this guy has 2-10), and the number of lobes on the seminal receptacle (this guy has 2 lobes but we didn't check). In any case, enjoy. As always, if you want the paper describing these guys please ask.
Here is a nice little ornate ghost pipefish. Unlike seahorses and true pipefish, ghost pipefish eggs are carried by the female. The female has developed a very highly specialized set of organs (cotelyphores) that allow for efficient oxygen transport, adhesion in the brood sack and allows for maternal dna transmission to the eggs. Apparently, only a species of catfish (South American Platystactus) a cool demonstration of convergent evolution).
Here is a nice little reef squid (1/2 inchish) from a blackwater dive last night on the Sunshine, a dive trip with friends of ours. Squid have two kinds of color apparatus, chromatophores (red, yellow and brown; descending in skin depth) and iridisiomes which are thin transparent protein platelets (like the lens in your eye) sandwiched with cytoplasm between them. They can generate reflected colors when hit with white light and the color depends on the local concentration of acetylcholine. Apparently the acetylcholine causes the iridisomes to either expand (making red reflectance) or contract (to make blue). In any case here she is; enjoy.
We are in Lembeh now at NAD with friends after 15 days on the Sunshine. Last night we did a black water dive and saw this long arm occy.
Most shrimp gobies spend time near their burrow and with their shrimps. This yellow headed goby occasionally pops out all the way. This guy took lots of stalking but eventually he popped up.
At NAD in Lembeh with friends. Here is a nice little shrimp from our black water dive last night. No data (at least that I can find) about this guy.
Here is a large female ghost pipefish from our trip on the Sunshine with friends. The egg brooding sac is quite prominent (we couldn't see eggs in it). Apparently in my previous email about pipefishes what i meant to say was that nature has solved a particular problem, how to keep eggs in place when they are on the outside. Evolution has solved it the same way twice, once in the amazon catfish and once in the pipefish. The SEM picture (inset) shows the structure that holds the egg in place and amazingly the structure only is made once a fertile egg touches the skin of the sac. In any case, enjoy.
Here is a nice little worm from a black water dive last night in Lembeh.
Here is a nice little Doto (Doto greenmyeri) from our recent dive trip on the Sunshine. These guys are good chemists and can synthesize Dotofide (Putz et al, Eu. J. Org. Chem., 2011) (not a terribly original name) from scratch, it is not in their food. Here he is with "fingers” crossed. In any case, enjoy.
Here is a nice little Cyerce from our recent trip to Indonesia on the Sunshine. He is sitting on blue/white stage and is quite happy there (if you turn it over he stays put). Cyerce eat mostly seaweeds and have a preference for Chlorodesmis which contains significant toxins. Cyerce that ate Chlorodesmis were not attacked by Gymnodoris, but if they were eating other seaweeds, the Gymnodoris ate them happily, strongly suggesting that the toxin from the Chlorodesmis (diterpenoids) kept the Cyerce safe. In any case, enjoy.
Here is a nice little ABN nudibranch (will get an ID later) crawling around on the dichroic black stage. ABN is shorthand for "another bloody nudibranch" which our late, dear friend Pam would write on her slate when any of us showed her a nudibranch. In any case, enjoy
Here is the same guy as yesterday (Samla bilas, used to be Flabellina) sitting on the dichroic glass. You can see why the common name is double ringed nudibranch.
