Webmaster Miller handed me this one that came in from Alan Sutton who resides in Tanzania , noting that it had him confused because he had never seen an Ardeadoris egretta, with quite this coloration. The marginal band is thin and reddish, not orange as in the classical case with A. egretta. The gill also possesses reddish color along its margins. The gill of Ardeadoris egretta is pure white.

It certainly doesn't fit any of our known species in first edition of NSSI, or the second edition in prep right now to be released this fall.

Alan has posted a video of this guy on youtube. Evidently from the video, our unknown can achieve sizes not generally seen in Ardeadoris egretta (at least by our Webmaster). Alan has measured one at 15 cm which is approaching Spanish Dancer dimensions but certainly isn't same. Alan indicates when present, our unk is generally seen around 18 meters.

Let's just leave it as "c.f." and see if any of you the reader can shed some light on this one.

I am originally from South Africa, I was born in Durban in 1959 but spent most of my early life and school in Pietermaritzburg. I started diving at an early age, when I was about 4. I saw an article in a magazine with pictures of Jacque Cousteau with a mask on. My father had a pair of old flying goggles and on the next family holiday to the sea I took them with and tried them out. Needless to say they leaked but I got a glimpse of a few fish that I can still remember today.

I started free diving a lot in the holidays when I was about 12 years old, diving with my cousins who were into spear fishing and used to dive with the then South African Champions who taught me how to dive. I used to go along and watch. When I was at University in Durban where I studied Law and then Maritime Law, I dived a lot for crayfish, a hobby which I continued until I moved to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania in 1999. I had my first seawater fish tank when I was 16 and kept up the hobby until I moved to Tanzania.

In Tanzania I have dived Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Mafia Island, Kilwa and Mtwara all of which have world class diving. I have dived the Kwa-Zulu Natal North and South coasts extensively as well as the Transkei coast and also done some diving in Dahab in Egypt. My favorite dive spot ever is the north east point of Mafia Island. Big drop offs with a strong current and a lot of life ranging from small stuff to large trevally's, dog tooth tuna, very large bass and a few sharks.

I only switched across to Scuba about 6 years ago and have done about 500 dives maybe slightly more. I have Padi Rescue Diver and Deep dive qualifications. Usually I dive at least twice a week but sometimes up to six times a week if the conditions are good. I mainly dive with the Dar es Salaam Yacht Club , we have a dedicated dive boat and have 7 scheduled dives a week. We dive in the vicinity of Dar es Salaam either just north which has some good walls or just to the south which has some wrecks.