If you're interested in using any of these photographs in any way, please contact me. Send an e-mail to naturalhistoryphotos(at)gmail.com. Thanks!

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

A few more tips


Black-tipped Spiny Dorid (Acanthodoris rhodoceras), 16 July 2019. We've seen a few individuals of this nudibranch recently, all with this very dark coloration.  Note the two long rhinophores tipped with reddish-brown, and the prominent gill plume (it looks a bit like a flower).  There are also nice gold highlights along the edge of the mantle.  Thanks to Eric for spotting it!

P.S.  Interestingly, when we were seeing this species several years ago (in 2015), most of the individuals we found were much paler.  For an example (with video), see the post called "A few tips" on 6 June 2015.

2 comments:

John W. Wall said...

I was wondering when you were finally going to have a post about the mussels dying in the heat up there, and this morning I heard you on NPR! Good interview on a terrible situation.

Jackie Sones said...

Hi, John,

Yes, I've posted about the mussel die-off a few times now -- see posts with "Too hot" in the title, as well as the "Pretty cool" post from a couple of days ago.

I really enjoyed participating in the two KQED interviews. And I'm grateful for the coverage of this story. If anyone wants to listen, you can hear the interviews online:

KQED Forum:
https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101872002/researchers-june-heatwave-baked-local-mussels

KQED The California Report:
https://www.kqed.org/news/11761938/north-coast-mussel-die-off-causes-alarm-for-scientists

Jackie