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Ceratophyllidia sp. 2
Image courtesy of Webmaster, Michael MillerRinca, Indonesia
Ceratophyllidia sp. 2 (undescribed)
The genus Ceratophyllidia has to be the wildest of all the porostomes. With detachable papillae scattered over the surface of the dorsum, they employ the same defensive strategy of autotomy, as some Melibe , Cerberilla and Dirona .
This species differs from the others in having a white body with 10-16 reddish brown spots. In Mike's photo you can see spicules underlying the mid-dorsal spots. These spicules give rigidity to the animal's body. The inflated tubercles are white with reddish brown concentrated at the tips.
Like all porostome dorid nudibranchs, Ceratophyllidia have no radula and feed on sponges using the spit, dissolve and slurp the soup method of feeding
Indo-Pacific Nudibranchs gives the geographic range as Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Guam and now Indonesia.
Sammamish, WA 98074
Nov., 2013
Send Dave email at davidwbehrens@gmail.com
Webmaster's Notes: I would like to thank Graham Abbott of Diving4Images for finding this guy in the first place during a trip to the Komodos-Rinca region of Indonesia! As luck would have it, the tape drive mechanism of my camcorder had failed but I was able to get this one shot using my video lights and an SD card alternative which I rarely use. Of course I didn't find out the video end of my Camcorder wasn't working until I reviewed the tape after getting home. Just luckly I have even this one pic which is nothing to write home about!
I would invite the reader to look at Ali Hermosillo's pics from the same area taken on a cruise just before our trip on the same boat!
San Diego, Calif 92113
Nov., 2013
Send Mike email at mdmiller@cts.com
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