Plocamopherus sp. (undescribed)

This is a reasonably common species of Plocamopherus. The issue is which species? It is close to Plocamopherus lemur Valles & Gosliner, 2006 as well as Plocamopherus sp. 2 in Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification , page 118, but not a dead ringer. Ploc's belong to the Triophinae, a subgroup of Polyceriids. All species have well developed lateral appendages.

Lindsay's specimen is orange-brown in body color with a network of light-brown patches, speckled with numerous small papillae tipped with a fine white speck. The lateral appendages are branched at the tips. There are four orange light organs, two anterior to and two posterior to the gill

Just another one to add to our list of new species from this area.

Reference:

Valles Y. & Gosliner T.M. 2006. Shedding light onto the genera (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) Kaloplocamus and Plocamopherus with description of new species belonging to these unique bioluminescent dorids . The Veliger 48(3): 178-205 [details]

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