Consolation prize

Well, we didn't find what we were looking for today, but near the end of our search at Eagle Cove on San Juan Island, Eric looked down into a tidepool and found this!

 

This is a stauromedusa.  It's about 1 cm across and attached to a piece of red algae (Mazzaella sp.).  We think it's a species of Haliclystus.

Here's a view from the side:

 

I don't have many resources with me, so will have to do more research on this species when I return to California.  For now here are a few more pictures of this wonderful animal.

 

 

The next image shows the stauromedusa holding a crab zoea (larva) that it had just captured.  You can see the crab zoea's eyes and its spine pointing backwards.  I don't know how often stauromedusae eat crab zoeae, but this one caught at least three while we were watching it today.

 

I first wrote about stauromedusae in November, so click here to review their anatomy and a little bit about their biology and read more about a different species that we found on Bodega Head last fall.