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Melibe cf. coralophilia
Image courtesy of John GreenamyerPapua New Guinea
Photo courtesy of John Greenamyer
 | Melibe cf. coralophilia Gosliner & Pola, 2012 Well, this is certainly a surprise. What's with the blue pigment? Under all the blue encrustations I believe we have what looks to be a typical M. coralophilia. Described only 12 years ago, this large (up to 120 mm in length) Melibe is usually uniformly dark brown. In the specimens I have seen, the thick cerata are covered with minute light spots. The small oral hood is typical of M. coralophilia. It lives throughout the Eastern Indian and Western Pacific oceans, among the branches of living coral colonies of Porites and Heliopora, neither of which is blue nor would explain the color of this interesting variation. While there are several blue coral species, none really match the morphology of the blue patches on the slug. These patches almost resemble the surface of a sponge or tunicate. There has to be an ecological reason for this. We will need to add this observation to the next edition of NSSI, in the works now.
Reference: Terrence Gosliner & Marta Pola (2012): Diversification of filter-feeding nudibranchs: two remarkable new species of Melibe (Opisthobranchia: Tethyiidae) from the tropical western Pacific, Journal of Systematics and Biodiversity , 10:3, 333-349 |
New Braunfels, TX
Jul. 2024
Send Dave email at davidwbehrens@gmail.com
Linda Blanchard, John Greenamyer , and Kevin Lee
Recognition Ceremony
Orange County Underwater Photographic Society monthly meeting
July 14th, 2015
 | John Greenamyer has been diving some thirty years with a macro u/w photography pursuit using both still photography and video. His favorite diving areas are PNG and Indonesia with an emphasis on PNG, especially the Milne Bay region so popularized for its "muck" photographic opportunities. On many of these trips, he was in the company of Roger Steene, Neville Coleman and Ali Hermosillo on the CHERTAN! John has been kind of a mentor to me when it comes to super macro sea slug videos! John is also a great supporter of the site and I look forward to diving with him again in the future! Congratulations John, your naming is an honor richly deserved!
Send John email at mrjhon69@verizon.net
Michael Miller |
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