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Nembrotha rosannulata
Images courtesy of Deb AstonCabbage Tree Island, near Nelson Bay, NSW
Estimated size 150 mm
Nembrotha rosannulata Cervera & Gosliner 2008
Sometimes I wonder what the creator was smoking when he came up with some of these. Yikes. Before this gang described this species we just called it the "pink donut slug." Good Lord - green with pink circles centered with black. Gaudy for sure.
If it wasn't apparent enough, the trivial name of this Nembrotha translates to rose colored annualae, or circles.
Carole Harris and Leon Betts first sent us this guy back in April of 2001 (BOW 268), from Australia. It grows to over 150mm in length, and as you can see here it feeds on stalked tunicates of the genus Oxycorynia. Looks like this pair are fighting over the last one.
The wrinkling of the green skins reminds me very much of the skin texture of Nembrotha milleri , named after our Webmaster.
Deb's photo here adds to the growing list of nudibranchs that the commensal shrimp, Periclimenes imperator has formed a relationship with.
Good show Deb!
Gig Harbor, Washington
Jun., 2012
Deb with friend
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Hi my name is Deb Aston and I began diving in 1983 and my early log books record the colours of the nudibranch that I had discovered but very little detail. In 2004 I purchased my first Canon compact camera and this meant at last I could ID the branchs I had found during my dives. I live in Brisbane, Australia and dive on a regular basis utilising our 4.6m Crusada rib ‘Duck Diver’. Our nearest shore dive is the Gold Coast Seaway which is 1 hrs drive south. It is here at the Seaway that I have begun to record the nudibranchs found and am amazed to report over 70 species found now since 1 July 2011. Most species are found during night dives. My husband is also a diver and along with a great bunch of dives buds we have dived many Queensland sites as well as Nelson Bay in New South Wales and recently spent two months in South Australia checking out the southern species. My current camera rig is a Canon 500D camera with 60mm & 18-55mm Canon and 10-17 Tonkina lenses with 2 Inon Z240 strobes connected with fibre optic. The housing is a Sea & Sea RDX450 housing and I use a Sola 600 as focus and night light.
Send Deb email at dtaston@bigpond.net.au |
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