Merry
Contributor
Water temp around Palos Verdes has been 52 - 56 degrees, with intermittent plankton blooms. Nudibranch egg clusters of countless different species dominate the landscape this month. I've never seen so many eggs at one time, even considered spending an entire dive documenting all the different types of egg masses.
Photos from three of our favorite local dive sites:
GOLF BALL REEF
The kelp amphipod, Peramphithoe humeralis
Chestnut cowry tending eggs.
Doriopsilla fulva
Berthella californica laying eggs.
LITTLE REEF
Sargo
Black croakers
Here's an example of an adult black croaker adult that spontaneously changed its colors to the juvenile striped pattern. (See Milton Love, 2011).
The exceedingly small eggs of the snail, Amphissa versicolor. ID thanks to Dr. Jeff Goddard.
It's fun to watch the black dorid, Polycera atra, laying eggs and feeding on Bugula neritina.
Polycera tricolor
Polycera tricolor
On this dive, Kevin found a third representative from the genus Polycera that is not often seen here.
Polycera hedgpethi.
Kevin also found this nearly transparent, 2mm wisp of a nudi laying eggs.
Ancula gibbosa
GARDEN SPOT
Examples of the light color variation of the black dorid, Polycera atra:
A juvenile
An adult Polycera atra
An adult Polycera atra laying eggs
Kevin found this grain-of-rice-size Diaphorodoris lirulatocauda.
Austraeolis stearnsi It's interesting that we only find these neon-orange fellas on Garden Spot, the nearby Marineland platform, and the distant Star of Scotland wreck.
Phil handed me this Aegiris albopunctatus; they always remind me of a nubby rug.
Photos from three of our favorite local dive sites:
GOLF BALL REEF
The kelp amphipod, Peramphithoe humeralis
Chestnut cowry tending eggs.
Doriopsilla fulva
Berthella californica laying eggs.
LITTLE REEF
Sargo
Black croakers
Here's an example of an adult black croaker adult that spontaneously changed its colors to the juvenile striped pattern. (See Milton Love, 2011).
The exceedingly small eggs of the snail, Amphissa versicolor. ID thanks to Dr. Jeff Goddard.
It's fun to watch the black dorid, Polycera atra, laying eggs and feeding on Bugula neritina.
Polycera tricolor
Polycera tricolor
On this dive, Kevin found a third representative from the genus Polycera that is not often seen here.
Polycera hedgpethi.
Kevin also found this nearly transparent, 2mm wisp of a nudi laying eggs.
Ancula gibbosa
GARDEN SPOT
Examples of the light color variation of the black dorid, Polycera atra:
A juvenile
An adult Polycera atra
An adult Polycera atra laying eggs
Kevin found this grain-of-rice-size Diaphorodoris lirulatocauda.
Austraeolis stearnsi It's interesting that we only find these neon-orange fellas on Garden Spot, the nearby Marineland platform, and the distant Star of Scotland wreck.
Phil handed me this Aegiris albopunctatus; they always remind me of a nubby rug.
