 |
Nembrotha c.f. milleri ???
Image courtesy of WebmasterPuerto Galera, Philippines
Frame Grab from Video
Nembrotha c.f. milleri taken by Stewart Clarke at Anilao, Philippines
one week prior to Webmaster's arrival
 |
Nembrotha c.f. milleri ?? Dave is out on a well deserved vacation so the webmaster is picking up the slack this week. That's the bad news, the good news is Bill Rudman's Sea Slug Forum is up and running again after a long hiatus! This week's story is really an additional chapter on Stewart Clarke's BOW ran a couple of weeks ago centering on a suspected spotted Nembrotha milleri. What wasn't mentioned was the time our group spent looking for Stewart's specimen in the general reported area, but we were never able to find it! I mean how could we miss something that big and colorful? We finally gave up and spent our leisure time at the resort conjecturing as to how the supposed Nembrotha milleri acquired the spots or was it a one time genetic aberration due to mantle gland activity. We finally settled on mantle gland activity which is known to be part of Nembrothid physiological makeup. The story doesn't end there! While diving at Puerto Galera one week later, the dive guide points out a minaturized version (10 mm) of what Stewart saw at Secret Bay, Anilao across the Verde Channel. It was too small to make the connection then but while editing my video, the realization came to the forefront that we were dealing with the same problematic species! Far be it from me to speculate as to whether a phylogenetic placement might separate N. milleri from N. c.f. milleri. But as the ol' saying goes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, maybe it is a duck! Rather simplistic thinking, I know but you get the idea! Obviously we're not dealing with a one time abberation! The Webmaster has certainly walked the "plank" on this one and will probably end up in the water but would still invite opinions from the "experts" out there as to what we're dealing with here? |
Webmaster's Notes: (08/18/2013) In going back through old correspondence, I came across an image of our subject submitted by Karen Honeycutt from the Dumaguete/Dauin region of the Philippines back in 2010. So this guy isn't necessarily confined to the Anilao, Puerto Galera area of the Philippines!
Michael Miller
San Diego, Calif
Jul., 2013
Send Mike email at mdmiller@cts.com
|
