{"id":2936,"date":"2013-07-22T13:19:51","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T20:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/?p=2936"},"modified":"2013-07-22T18:25:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T01:25:25","slug":"pic-of-the-day-magnificent-ceratosoma-ladybug-amphipods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/?p=2936","title":{"rendered":"Pic of the Day – Magnificent Ceratosoma Nudibranch & Ladybug Amphipods"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Awoosh.Images.Ceratosoma.Magnificent\"<\/a>

Magnificent Ceratosoma Nudibranch – Ceratosoma magnificum<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Today’s pic is a Magnificent Ceratosoma nudibranch, photographed in South Komodo – near the epic Horseshoe Bay at Rinca island. It was about 2.5 inches in length.<\/p>\n

There was quite a bit of excitement when this nudi was first spotted – apparently it is not often seen. This one was down around 70 feet, and with many of us wanting to capture an image\/video of it, I hurried my first attempt so I wouldn’t be hogging the subject, and then I moved up into shallower water as we were nearing the end of the dive. Doing a quick review of my images, I felt I hadn’t really got what I was hoping for, so I waited out the rest of the gang, who I could see below me, as they took their shots. Once everyone had their turn and had left the area, I dropped back down and took another quick try (getting low on gas and<\/em> bottom time), and this is the best I got.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the next day, the guides found three of these nudiibranchs, all clustered together (nudi orgy?), at Cannibal Rock, in Horseshoe Bay. The one pictured above was taken on a wall dive, outside the bay.<\/p>\n

I will admit that I did not see the tiny Ladybug Amphipod (Cyproideidae<\/em>) hitchhiking on the nudi (top right) until I downloaded the shot and saw it on a larger screen.<\/p>\n

These little ladybugs of the sea are fascinating creatures – very, very tiny – less than 1\/4 inch long. To the naked eye, they resemble fleas – and like fleas, they jump around so they are very difficult to shoot. Once the guides pointed a few out, I started seeing them everywhere (through my macro viewfinder and lens – I was really not able to see them at all without this magnification). I have only ever “seen” them in South Komodo, and interestingly, they have apparently only been documented in this area.<\/p>\n

Here is a closer view of the ladybugs – again, the best I managed. I only saw them on this one dive – which was a wall dive with a bit of current, so that made it tricky to get a pleasing shot. This image was taken with a +10 wet diopter layered over my 105mm macro lens.<\/p>\n

\"Awoosh.Images.Ladybugs\"<\/a>

Ladybug Amphipod – Cyproideidae<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

One of these days I will get around to writing up the final chapters of the Komodo Chronicles, which will include these great dives we did at Rinca\/Horseshoe Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s pic is a Magnificent Ceratosoma nudibranch, photographed in South Komodo – near the epic Horseshoe Bay at Rinca island. It was about 2.5 inches in length. There was quite a bit of excitement when this nudi was first spotted … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,61,13],"tags":[191,193,192,190],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2936"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2956,"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions\/2956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awoosh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}