Head on Nudis

I appreciate the might me a little 'marmite' as we say over here, and not to everyones taste, but I prefer to try something a little more interesting and not the standard ID shots. that said, I honestly have no idea of the names of half of these! All taken around the Tulamben area of Bali.

Not sure if its a resizing thing but IQ has taken quite a bit of a hit uploading to here - any ideas?

Mike

Nice nudi photos, it looks like you found some beauties, the last one is a 
Goniobranchus hintuanensis. 

It adds to the enjoyment of ones sea life photos to know the critters names and habits, there are a number of excellent and affordable books now available. To get a start in the nudi world, the many others can be read about in these two nudi Bibles:

Gosliner, Valdez & Behrens: Nudibranchs & Sea Slug Identification
and 
Coleman, N: Nudibranchs Encyclopedia  

Cracking second shot, Mike.

7 hours ago, TimG said:

Cracking second shot, Mike.

Cheers Tim (Championies   )

On 7/17/2023 at 6:11 PM, Kraken de Mabini said:

Nice nudi photos, it looks like you found some beauties, the last one is a 
Goniobranchus hintuanensis. 

It adds to the enjoyment of ones sea life photos to know the critters names and habits, there are a number of excellent and affordable books now available. To get a start in the nudi world, the many others can be read about in these two nudi Bibles:

Gosliner, Valdez & Behrens: Nudibranchs & Sea Slug Identification
and 
Coleman, N: Nudibranchs Encyclopedia  

 

Thanks Kracken - it does frustrate me a little  not  knowing what the subjects  are and I'm back over  there next May, so I'll look into those guides, 

Mike

Resorts often do not have Nudibranch books, so maybe one can bring along an electronic book to help id the nudis one photographs, such as https://books.apple.com/us/book/anilao-nudibranchs/id1210743768?ls=1

Some great shots there, though if you go to the nudi ID sites first thing they will tell you is to take side on shots if you want to get an ID for many species.  I generally take a number of angles including an ID shot.

some IDs:

1. possibly - Flabellina bilas

2. Doto greenamyeri

4.Pteraeolidia semperi

5.Nembrotha cristata

7: Stiliger ornatus - a sapsucking slug rather than a nudi.

A quite good ID resource is the various Facebook nudi pages, you might look at Nudibase - just search for it on Facebook.  They have strict rules about posting - mainly I think to make it easier to search and find stuff on the site which is never easy on Facebook, but they have quite a few knowledgeable people who will offer ID suggestions.

The fifth one (blue and green on the orange backdrop) is a stellar shot! I love the “nudie portrait” concept. Makes it feel more dynamic and gives the character of the nudies a chance to shine! 

Those are some incredible shots

 Great photos!  I hope to be in Lembeh next month, with the intention of greeting these critters.

I asked nudibranch expert Mike Miller of San Diego about nudibranch #3, which he identified as Carminodoris estrelyado, a nudi described in p. 95 of "Nudibranch & Sea Slug Identification" by Gosliner, Valdes and Behrens, though I must say the book photo is not that good. However, the web has a dramatic photo of it:  https://www.thebestnudibranchhunter.com/carminodoris-estrelyado/  and says: "It is found in the Indo-West Pacific.

Before known as Hoplodoris estrelyado. 
“Estrelyado” is actually the Tagalog word for “sunny side up” which is derived from the Spanish word “estrella,” for star, indicating the eggs are formed into star-like patterns with the yolk facing upwards. To make a long story short, Terry Gosliner & Dave Behrens thought that the colour pattern on the dorsal surface of this beast looked like fried eggs, served sunny-side up. Not only does the color look like a fried egg, but the tubercles covering the dorsal surface are tall and shaped like plump perfectly prepared fried eggs. The remainder of the dorsal surface is speckled with the white and black of scattered salt and pepper served with this dish. Okay, enough of the food thing, the rhinophores and gills look nothing like food, are typically dorid in shape, and are dark brown with white specks." "

6 hours ago, Kraken de Mabini said:

 Great photos!  I hope to be in Lembeh next month, with the intention of greeting these critters.

I asked nudibranch expert Mike Miller of San Diego about nudibranch #3, which he identified as Carminodoris estrelyado, a nudi described in p. 95 of "Nudibranch & Sea Slug Identification" by Gosliner, Valdes and Behrens, though I must say the book photo is not that good. However, the web has a dramatic photo of it:  https://www.thebestnudibranchhunter.com/carminodoris-estrelyado/  and says: "It is found in the Indo-West Pacific.

Before known as Hoplodoris estrelyado. 
“Estrelyado” is actually the Tagalog word for “sunny side up” which is derived from the Spanish word “estrella,” for star, indicating the eggs are formed into star-like patterns with the yolk facing upwards. To make a long story short, Terry Gosliner & Dave Behrens thought that the colour pattern on the dorsal surface of this beast looked like fried eggs, served sunny-side up. Not only does the color look like a fried egg, but the tubercles covering the dorsal surface are tall and shaped like plump perfectly prepared fried eggs. The remainder of the dorsal surface is speckled with the white and black of scattered salt and pepper served with this dish. Okay, enough of the food thing, the rhinophores and gills look nothing like food, are typically dorid in shape, and are dark brown with white specks." "

 

Thanks for that Kracken, great info, good luck in Lembeh - please post some results, as a group of photographers we really don't show off our work here enough in my opinion

MIke

On 7/18/2023 at 11:56 PM, ChrisRoss said:

Some great shots there, though if you go to the nudi ID sites first thing they will tell you is to take side on shots if you want to get an ID for many species.  I generally take a number of angles including an ID shot.

some IDs:

1. possibly - Flabellina bilas

2. Doto greenamyeri

4.Pteraeolidia semperi

5.Nembrotha cristata

7: Stiliger ornatus - a sapsucking slug rather than a nudi.

A quite good ID resource is the various Facebook nudi pages, you might look at Nudibase - just search for it on Facebook.  They have strict rules about posting - mainly I think to make it easier to search and find stuff on the site which is never easy on Facebook, but they have quite a few knowledgeable people who will offer ID suggestions.

Great info, thanks Chris

On 7/19/2023 at 3:01 AM, RocketFish17 said:

The fifth one (blue and green on the orange backdrop) is a stellar shot! I love the “nudie portrait” concept. Makes it feel more dynamic and gives the character of the nudies a chance to shine! 

Thanks pal

On 7/19/2023 at 8:00 PM, mrchen911 said:

Those are some incredible shots

Very kind of you

Mike

11 hours ago, Kraken de Mabini said:

 Great photos!  I hope to be in Lembeh next month, with the intention of greeting these critters.

I asked nudibranch expert Mike Miller of San Diego about nudibranch #3, which he identified as Carminodoris estrelyado, a nudi described in p. 95 of "Nudibranch & Sea Slug Identification" by Gosliner, Valdes and Behrens, though I must say the book photo is not that good. However, the web has a dramatic photo of it:  https://www.thebestnudibranchhunter.com/carminodoris-estrelyado/  and says: "It is found in the Indo-West Pacific.
 

Before known as Hoplodoris estrelyado. 
“Estrelyado” is actually the Tagalog word for “sunny side up” which is derived from the Spanish word “estrella,” for star, indicating the eggs are formed into star-like patterns with the yolk facing upwards. To make a long story short, Terry Gosliner & Dave Behrens thought that the colour pattern on the dorsal surface of this beast looked like fried eggs, served sunny-side up. Not only does the color look like a fried egg, but the tubercles covering the dorsal surface are tall and shaped like plump perfectly prepared fried eggs. The remainder of the dorsal surface is speckled with the white and black of scattered salt and pepper served with this dish. Okay, enough of the food thing, the rhinophores and gills look nothing like food, are typically dorid in shape, and are dark brown with white specks." "

 

Good info Elias.  just a a note that to respect copyright we really should not copy a photo in from another site without asking permission.  Better to to just link it like this:

https://www.thebestnudibranchhunter.com/carminodoris-estrelyado/

Yes, I considered that, and as the photo has no copyright mark and is posted in an open e-puiblication, it can be used once with due credit, with no need for formal permission.

Just a different 

On 7/19/2023 at 12:56 AM, ChrisRoss said:

7: Stiliger ornatus - a sapsucking slug rather than a nudi.

I would agree on every id you made but on this one, even though lots of websites list it as a stiliger (some books too, that's one of the mistakes in NSSI).

This is in fact a quite common Costasiella specie, sacoglossian slug ( for instance shown on Erwin Kohler's website, which is IMO the best online source for indo pacific nudibranches http://www.medslugs.de/E/Pac-W/Costasiella_sp_10/Selection.htm ) and not a much rarer Stiliger ornatus as sometimes mentioned or confused http://www.medslugs.de/E/Pac-W/Stiliger_ornatus/Selection.htm

The main difference between these two slugs is the position of the eyes. Frontal for Costasiella sp.(alike "Shaun the sheep nudi") behind the rhinophores for Stiliger.

On 7/19/2023 at 8:00 PM, mrchen911 said:

Those are some incredible shots

Thanks for that, appreciated

Mike