Re: Calliopaea bellula - Ercolania cf. viridis & eggs

Thanks Marina,

I suspect this will take a while to sort out. The first job will be to sort out just how many species there are and the second job will be to investigate all the old names and decide how many are identifiable and to which of the actual living species they refer. Unfortunately some of the older workers did not have a good idea of colour variability within a species or conversely they did not realise that there could be a number of species which looked almost identical to each other.

I am sure that detailed studies and photos of common species such as you are accumulating, will be of great assistance in solving these puzzles.

Another interesting thing I noticed in your middle photos of the green animal was that it appears to be feeding. You will notice that the algal filament it is on is a uniform green above its head but below the cell contents have been disrupted suggesting to me that it is gradually sucking them out. In the background there is another algal filament with the same apparent damage.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman