Flabellina affinis

Image courtesy of Winfreid Werzmirzowsky
Ibiza (Med)
Nikon RS

Flabellina affinis (Gmelin, 1791)

Dave is on holiday this week so you're stuck with the Webmaster for this edition!

Carol Cox first introduced us to Flabellina affinis (Courtesy of Bill Rudman's Sea Slug Forum) back in 2007 and upon reviewing some recent pics Winfreid Werzmirzowsky sent me how could we not do a "revisit"?

The taxonomic features of Windfried's slug correlate fairly well with information provided on Bill Rudman's site so I am confident the ID is in the ball park!

Our younger readers probably have no idea what a Nikon RS is? For their enlightenment, the Nikon RS was probably one of the best film camera's ever produced by Nikon! It was possible to take 36 frames out of a roll of 36 and have every frame properly exposed! No post production work needed! Absolutely amazing! It wasn't cheap and beyond my budget at the time so I labored along with my Nikon FM2 and later Nikon F3 until going digital back in 2002 after a visit to Japan and being introduced to Digital Photography by our Japanese slug counterparts who were using housed Olympus cameras with American dive lights for illumination! In 2005 I went the video route with the advent of High Definition Camcorder's (1080p) and never looked back!



Michael Miller
San Diego, Calif 92113
Mar., 2022
Send Mike email at mdmiller1@cox.net


Winfried Werzmirzowsky and Webmaster
Frankfurt, Germany
April, 2004

Webmaster's Notes:

I first met Winfried many years ago back at Dive Paradise, Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia when we had adjoining rooms. Being somewhat in awe of his orderly arrangement of cameras and dive equipment, I was at first hesitant to strike up a conversation of in view of my less than organized gear strewn about my room. Perfect odd couple I though until my buddy Jerry Allen introduced us and I never looked back! Winfried's underwater photographic zeal is best exemplified by an incident on a succeeding trip to Bali. His Nikon RS teleconvertor failed and he decided to go back to Germany to have it repaired. What a shame I said, to abort a trip over a part failure! Winfried replied, "who's aborting, I will be back in a few days." Sure enough he reappeared in four days with a repaired teleconvertor. At that time there was only two technicians in the world who would work on RS cameras and one of them resided in Germany, so that's where Winfreid headed! Being a retired Lufthansa pilot certainly facilitated his journey, but it still required a lot of fortitude and dedication on his part. What more can be said, Winfried is a first rate underwater photographer! Winfried's most memorable dive: The liberty wreck at Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia at midnight! Just him and the ship residents and a starlit sky above! Almost transcendental! Winfried during his tenure with Lufthansa visited almost 70 countries! Wanderlust spirit as it's best!

So, when invited to visit him in Germany and see his images of Indonesia, I grabbed the wife and we took off to Germany in April of 2004. Who would of though we would fly half way around the world to see underwater images?? Well, it was certainly worth it! Winfried's images have appeared in several publications, the one that presently comes to mind is "Crustacea-Guide of the World" by Helmut Debelius.

What more can be said, Winfried is a first rate underwater photographer!

The most difficult aspect of getting to know Winfreid for me was pronouncing his last name! I eventually gave up! To me he has always been and will be Winfreid! I count myself very fortunate in this lifetime to have made his acquaintance!

Send Winfreid email at Winfried Werzmirzowsky


Attention all you Sluggers, and you know who you are!

The NSSI 2nd edition is now available in ebook PDF and book form . The hard back version will become available Nov. 1st. Both will cost $65 (individually).

You will need to jump through a few hoops to get the electronic version as pdf distribution is protected by Adobe ID!! Please read the following to enable reading your electronic purchase!

This new 2nd Edition is updated and reorganized, including 185 new species. Among other features, the new edition includes additional photographs of species, an identification key, and an up-to-date classification reflecting the latest evolutionary relationships. The Indo-Pacific represents the largest expanse of tropical ocean in the world, stretching from the Indian Ocean coast of southern Africa and the Red Sea to the central Pacific of the Hawaiian Islands, Easter Island and the Marquesas.

This region supports the most diverse marine fauna of any place in the world for most groups of marine organisms. The nudibranchs and sea slugs are no exception to this rule; there are about 3,000 described species of these organisms in the world and at least 40% of these have been found exclusively in the Indo-Pacific tropics. This book illustrates 2,138 Indo-Pacific nudibranchs and sea slugs, including many undescribed species.


From left to right, Terry Gosliner, Angel Valdes, Dave Behrens La Jolla, Calif.

Send Dave email at davidwbehrens@gmail.com

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