Myja longicornis

Image courtesy of John Greenamyer
Milne Bay, PNG
Specimen found by Ali Hermosillo
D5100 with 60mm macro lens in Ikelite housing, one D50 strobe
October 2012

Myja longicornis

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. Dave Behrens Sammamish, WA 98074 Dec., 2012 Send Dave email at davidwbehrens@gmail.com

John Greenamyer and friend somewhere in the Milne Bay region

John Greenamyer has been diving some thirty-one 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 and muck diving. John has been a featured presenter on the Slug Site for some time. John was one of the first U/W photographers to capture images of a bizarre doto sp. which is just now being described by the folks at the California Academy of Sciences. 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 Webmaster San Diego, Calif 92113 Nov., 2012 Send John email at mrjhon69@verizon.net Send Mike email at mdmiller@cts.com

From left to right, Terry Gosliner, Angel Valdes, Dave Behrens La Jolla, Calif. Send Dave email at davidwbehrens@gmail.com

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