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Nembrotha c.f. kubaryana
Image courtesy of Martha TresselerAnilao, Batangas, Philippines
Photo courtesy of Martha Tresseler
 | Nembrotha c.f. kubaryana (juvenile) Bergh, 1877
We saw several of these at the April's Anilao Slugfest. The issue presented was - who are they? Slug bro Terry Gosliner has offered the ID of juvenile N. kubaryana (Courtesy of Bill Rudman's Sea Slug Forum), but stresses that protein sequencing is needed to be absolutely sure. N. kubaryana is by far the most variable of the Nembrotha's. We show three variants in Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification. , page 122. As seen there its spots can be orange, green and even blend into lines. Martha's critters are pretty small, just a couple of mm in length. The orange spotting certainly suggests N. kubaryana. Juveniles have dark rhinophores as seen here in Martha's photos. When mature the rhinophores turn orange. Color changes of this sort have been observed in many dorid nudibranchs species. Guessing that these two guys are new species might be a stretch, considering variations within this species, and due to age of individuals. So for now we will go with Terry's ID. Until proven otherwise, we really have no other options. Great photos Martha.
Sammamish, WA 98074 June, 2016 Send Dave email at davidwbehrens@gmail.com
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Anthony Holley and Martha Tresseler Anilao, Philippines
April 2016
Photo courtesy of Kevin Lee
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Three weeks in Anilao this spring at a nudibranch workshop run by Dave Behrens (Mike Miller assisting on half of it) yielded about 300 species for my partner Anthony Holley and me (almost 600 for the group!). Using a Nikon D7000 with 105mm lens in a Nauticam housing, twin Inon Z240 strobes, and an SMC fixed to the front of the port much of the time we went hunting and every dive turned up more and different nudis - about 80 new to us. Quite a few of them turned out to be juveniles as identified by Terry Gosliner- interesting how different they can be from their adult versions!
Send Marthan email at martha@mtressler.com |
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