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Hermaea sp.
Image courtesy of Alfred JakoblichRiver area, Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia
When Terry, Angel and I designed Indo-Pacific Nudibranchs and Sea Slugs, we knew we had to limit the number of species, for both book size and cost reasons alone. With our final count of just under 1400 species , we knew we had to exclude some we were aware of, and that many species may likely be inadvertently over-looked. Those we could only wait for are the many new species were being discovered all of the time.
Our species this week is one of the latter. Neither of us has ever seen this lovely new species Hermaea.
This amazing transparent species of Sacoglossid (sap-sucking slug), has the most unique ceratal cores. Orange in color, the form a sort of zigzag shape. Look at the photo above and tell me how you would describe this shape. These zags create low elevations on the surface of the cerata. The entire body is covered with fine white and maroon specks.
The filamentous red alga Alfred's specimen is crawling on is likely this herbivores food.
The only locality we are aware for this species is the spot Alfred photographed it at. Now we need some specimens!
Gig Harbor, Washington
Dec., 2009
Alfred Jakoblich
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Born in 1944, I started snorkeling at about 15 years old. Scuba diving followed in 1972. After 7 years of diving in Greece. In 1978, I made the first trip to the Maldives. After three times diving the Maldives, I made different diving trips and törns at Red Sea, Carribean Sea, Sea of Cortez, Australia (Great White Shark with Rodney Fox), Cocos Island, Galapagos. My first trip to the Bali/Tulamben area was in 1997. There my photographic interests shifted more and more to close ups and macro. Also, I have visted the Sulawesi/Lembeh area some seven times in sucession. Since about 2005, I have specialized in the documentation of nudibranches, but I try also to get a personal catalogue of all reef creatures of the Indo-Pacific. Actually I have about 500 to 600 different species of nudis and about 3000 species of all the others. You can estimate, that this is a lot of working to identify all these critters and to bring them into a digital database which I share with pictures of Martin Buschenreithner and some other friends. Since 2001 I am retired, ( I was chemist, working in a oil refinery, now I am hobby-biologist) so I have time to spend 2 months in Tulamben every year. A few words about UW-Photo equipment. In 2005 I changed from analog to digital, now I use ( all the years) a Nikon D70 with zoom lens Micro-Nikkor 70 -180mm. Camera housing: Subal ND70. Flash: Subtronic alpha makro. My special technique to find rare (and mainly very small) nudis and other critters is: patience, patience, patience………..!! Austria/Europe Dec. 2009
Send Alfred email at alfred.jakoblich@chello.at |
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