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Myja longicornis
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Myja longicornis
Bergh 1896
We had a link to Ali and John's first discovery of this remarkable species way back years ago as part of a past BOW species Cuthona sp.. Well now we know a little more about it and that it is not only not a Cuthona, but we can't even place it in a known family. Nudibranch Central in San Francisco will need preserved specimens to make that call. Unbelievable that Rudolph Bergh never placed it, and that his type specimens were destroyed in Europe during WW1. The remarkable thing about this critter is its resemblance to its prey - the reason we have so few sightings of it. The camouflage is incredible. The cerata have a bulbous subapical tip resembling the polyps of the athecate hydroid, Eudendrium sp., it feeds on. The coloration of the digestive gland within the cerata even matches the colors found in the polyps - red and white. To top off this story, the ceratal cores are brown - identical again to the stalk of the hydroid. Its trivial name "longicornis" makes reference to its long rhinophores - "cornis" meaning "horn" in Latin. Ali and John - next time collect a couple of specimens for us.
Sammamish, WA 98074 Dec., 2012 Send Dave email at davidwbehrens@gmail.com
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John Greenamyer and friend somewhere in the Milne Bay region
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To quote John "...On this particular trip on the Chertan out of Tawali resort , Nudi expert Ali Hermosillo brought the Myja longicornis to our attention and everybody got very excited. John keeps inviting me to participate in his PNG trips and I always seem to find an excuse not to go! Cost is big factor as PNG is now the focus of big companies like Exxon-Mobile who are looking for natural gas and oil deposits! With a find like this week's Myja longicornis , I'm certain to run out of excuses not to go?
Michael Miller
Send John email at mrjhon69@verizon.net
Send Mike email at mdmiller@cts.com |
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