Marionia arborescens Bergh 1890

A very distinctive species of Tritoniid, the genus differs from Tritonia by internal features, such as the presence (in Marionia) and absence (in Tritonia) of stomach plates in the digestive system. This species is greenish brown with prominent tubercles on the dorsal surface. Tritonia's have a smooth notum. Each is outlined with brown or green pigment. Specimens may have two diffuse white saddles across the dorsum as seen in Lindsay's specimen here. The velar tentacles are simple and the secondary gills highly branched. This species may reach 65mm in size.

Tritoniids are specialized predators on octocorals, including soft corals, gorgonians and sea pens.

On the photographic front, the only reason she ever took it up was purely to document what she saw when diving. She started with a second hand Nikonos II, then a Nikonos III and later progressed to a Nikon F3 in an Aquatica housing only moving to digital in 2011. However she also became an accomplished photographer of land & air wildlife, human life events, of capturing special moments. And yet still her first love remains with marine life, especially opisthobranchs.

Having dived in many areas of the world including UK, the Mediterranean, (Spain, France, Corsica), Red Sea, Bahamas, USA (Florida, California, Hawaii), St Lucia, Montserrat, South Africa, Madagascar, Brazil, Fiji, Tonga, French Polynesia, the Tukang Besi Archipelago, SE Sulawesi, Lindsay now spends most of her time in Indonesia diving in places such as Bali, Alor, Lembeh as well as Komodo, Flores, Sumbawa, but has also recently ventured further afield to the species-rich Philippines.

As some of you probably already know, Lindsay spent several seasons in the mid to late 1990s in the Wakatobi National Park islands (Tukang Besi Archipelago, SE Sulawesi, Indonesia) with Operation Wallacea. I am sure it is there that she perfected her technique of non-invasive underwater photography, something I will never master. Lindsay is able to photograph with a 105 mm lens and Macromate wet diopter while hovering about the subject without actually settling down on the seascape. Once more, she is able to do this with macro and super macro subjects. The results are amazing as the reader can see.

Lindsay was a prolific contributor to Bill Rudman's Sea Slug Forum when it was still an active site but she continues to look for and photograph opisthobranchs of all kinds sharing her finds with us.

Send Lindsay's email at lwarren@datonomy.co.uk