Marionia sp. 14 (undescribed)

There are so many species of Tritoniid nudibranch still undescribed it is amazing. Nudibranch Central in San Francisco can't keep up with all the new discoveries. Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification lists 13 species of Tritonia and 16 species of Marionia still lacking a formal name.

Externally, and you know how I hate ID'ing species from photos alone, this species looks like our Marionia sp. 14 (page 327 in NSSI). My problem with this ID is that the Gulf of Oman and Anilao, Philippines are a bit apart, but it could be.

The fine reticulating white lines on the notum are definitely diagnostic, as are the brown gill appendages. The species reaches about 110mm and currently has a very disjunct range.

I don't believe this species was among the nearly 600 species found at this year's Slugfest at Crystal Blue Resort, but we will surely be looking for it next May at our Nudibranch Festival with Mike Bartick and Jim Anderson. Join us.

Andrey have been shooting underwater since 2002. Technical diver of all possible certifications from full cave to advanced trimix, he switched from deep caves and wrecks to macro 8-9 years ago. Dived Red Sea - Seychelles - Maldives - Thailand - Philippines - Indonesia - PNG.

Andrey considers himself still a beginner in a slug world, and likes to dive with people he can learn a lot from. That is why he dives at Club Ocellaris in Anilao. Andrey can't not wait for two back-to-back macro trips in PNG this November-December with Alicia Hermosillo (Andrey dove with her on a Komodo nudibranch trip in 2015), and is still in awe of her nudibranching skills and knowledge!

From time to time Andrey employs his deep diving skills to find new objects, as with H.iota

Send Andrey email at ryanskiy@gmail.com

WEBMASTER'S NOTES:

Well, I'm not quite convinced of Andrey's amateur status in the slug world but am convinced Andre is keeping the right company and going to the right world wide locations to find and photograph sea slugs!

We can be assured of hearing more from Andrey, especially after back to back trips on the Chertan with Ali and Dave!