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Verconia verconis
on Aplysilla rosea spongeImage courtesy of Glenys Greenwood
Blairgowrie Pier, Mornington Pennisula, Victoria, South Australia
Image also courtesy of Glenys Greenwood
 | Verconia verconis (Basedow & Hedley, 1905) As luck would have it, Jim Black and I fly half way around the world to get a picture of Verconia verconis (Bill Rudman's Sea Slug Forum) and I am foiled on this particular dive by an under weighted weight belt and didn't get anything other than fond memories of diving with Glenys Greenwood and Deb and Ted Aston .On an overcast day at Blairgowrie Pier, Glenys was kind enough to go on the hunt with me for V. verconis while Deb and Ted took Jim on a Weedy Sea Dragon safari excursion in the sea grass. They were successful as reflected by the knock out images Jim got of the Weedy Sea Dragon . As for me, the gods did not smile kindly on my endeavors! Glenys found several specimens on the pier pilings which I was not able to photograph because I was bobbing around too much dealing with being under weighted to ever hope of getting a decent pic but I was privileged to see a couple which made all the difference in the world. Fortunately Glenys came to the rescue with pics she had taken of v. verconis and this BOW became a reality! |
As the reader can see in the image about, v. verconis is quite cryptic on its food source. The isolated image at your left may aide the reader in finding the subject in the upper photograph.
In a revision of the Chromodorididae, the researchers at the California Academy of Sciences have come to the conclusion that based on DNA studies, Verconia verconis should read Noumea verconis . Once again molecular genetics collides head on with classical taxonomy and the result is one that not everyone is happy with. Not really being conversant in either discipline I will leave it to the reader to make their own conclusions.
San Diego, Calif
June, 2014
Send Mike email at mdmiller@cts.com
Verconia verconis with egg mass
Image also courtesy of Glenys Greenwood
 | The image at the immediate left and above illustrates the egg mass of v. verconis . |
Glenys Greenwood on location at Flinder's Pier, Mornington Pennisula
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After completing a short resort course and first dives at Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef in 1977, I was hooked. It wasn't long into my diving career that I became attracted to nudibranchs and wanted to photograph them, along with the fantastic marine environment. I began photographing with a Nikonos 4a camera, wideangle and macro lenses. However, with the arrival of digital I now have a Fuji Finepix compact digital camera, which is a start for this recently retired Physiotherapist, who doesn't relish the thought of lugging around the cumbersome cameras and strobes of today. I dive regularly in Victorian waters, Wilson's Promontory being a favorite dive location and holiday most years at destinations in the Asia-Pacific region and GBR, which provides a very different biodiversity to the cooler temperate waters of southern Australia. WEBMASTER'S NOTES: Glenys and I share a lot more beyond being ardent nudiphiles! I also undertook my diving career back in 1977 and my first U/W camera. was (you guessed it!) a Nikonos 4a camera. With that system and a framer, I undertook my continuing odessay into the fascinating hobby of finding and photographing sea slugs! Send Glenys email at greendiver@bigpond.com
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