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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Red, red, red


A red nudibranch that eats a red sponge and lays a ribbon of red eggs on the sponge.

Meet the Red Sponge Nudibranch, Rostanga pulchra!


Here's a close-up of the nudibranch, taken under a microscope, as this was a small individual (~5 mm long):



And an extreme close-up of the individual eggs (actually developing embryos at this stage) within the ribbon:


P.S.  I'm not sure if I'm interpreting the name correctly.  Pulchra means "beautiful".  Rostanga is more difficult.  Ros means "rose" or "red"...and tang might mean "touch."  So it's possible the entire scientific name could be translated as "a beautiful touch of red."

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