marcelllo's Favorites

Observed on the Northeast Pacific Deep-sea Expedition in May to June 2023. Look below for a link to the observation video, and check out the expedition website for more info at https://www.oceannetworks.ca/expeditions/northeast-pacific-deep-sea-expedition/

Papallacta Pass, Ecuador. November 24, 2008.

Had to search past the radio towers for a bit before we stumbled upon a pair of these gems, moments before we were watching a Blue-mantled Thornbill flying up and foraging in the paramo.

This is the largest moth I have ever seen, with a wingspan of 5 or 6 inches. It came to my windows at night, and settled on the garden hose. To my surprise, it is still on the garden hose even though the day has warmed up quite a bit.

This individual has been rescued by locals so that’s why he is relatively “friendly” with people. However he is totally free and live in the wild.

For more follow me on www.instagram.com/ticoswildstudio

Nudibranch Coryphella trilineata (northern form, about 10mm long) & look-alike amphipod Podocerus cristatus. Scanned from a 35 mm slide I took in the lab in 1984. I had found the specimens in close proximity to each other a few days earlier in the low intertidal at Middle Cove, Cape Arago, Oregon. The amphipod (and her recently hatched juveniles, visible at lower right when viewed large) are on a piece of the outer tube of the polychaete Pista elongata; the slug is on a piece of the hydroid Abietinaria.

Notice the white head tentacles of the slug and the white antennae on the amphipod. Here's what one form of the amphipod looks like in central California, where the southern form of O. trilineata ( with chromium orange on their rhinophores and cephalic tentacles) is prevalent: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1103734

Farther south, near Puerto Vallarta, MX, the amphipod lacks white lines, just like the abundant local aeolids (see Fig. 1f-h in paper here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282252603).