#tidepooling worm

[sendentaryworm]

Some wide angle shots I took back in the start of May. It was the transition of seasons and introduction of new palettes.

[sendentaryworm]

Alpheus sp. Fabricius, 1798

Hellow welcome to my shop I sell rocks here, may I present you my finest wares?

This here, here, and this here! NOW PURCHASE!

I took some sequence shots of this little snapping shrimp shoving coral rubble at me. Little man wants to show me all the collection.

[sendentaryworm]

Menaethius monoceros Latreille, 1825

Return of the doritos crab. This is the last M. monoceros post I promise cus now I've completed the set of all the morphotypes. At least ones that I belive there are out there.

[sendentaryworm]

Psaumis cavipes Dana, 1852

A really pokemon-coded crab. Psaumis cavipes may look unassuming from above, with it having a pretty common body plan shared by many of its Xanthidae kins, a broad and widened carapace and coloration suited for blending into gravels. However looking front on and it turns into a piece of coral rubble! The strange indentations dotting across its body and especially on the carpus of the chalae(the part that's analogous to our elbows) separate it from other Xanthid crabs or even any other crabs. This is perhaps the strangest structure I've seen on a crab.

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Lamprohaminoea cymbalum Quoy & Gaimard, 1833

Saw the reproductive bloom of the alien clown watermelon.

These are the symbal bubble snails in the family Haminoeidae. Despite their affinity in appearance to Aplustridae bubble snails(e.g. Hydatina physis.) they're actually under the order Cephalaspidea, making them closer in relation to headshield slugs. May to June happens to be their reproductive bloom and I got to see them occurring in huge numbers during my trip down to Hengchun.

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Grammistes sexlineatus Thunberg, 1792

Grammistes sexlineatus, or the golden soapfish is a toxin producing fish closely related to groupers(used to be placed in the same family, Serranidae. Now in its own family, the Grammastidae.) These guys have a blasting radius with their anxiety attack(a literal attack!). While not enough to cause harm to humans, the toxic grammistin secreted from a soapfish's skin when stressed is used to deter predators and can even kill other fish when kept in captivity. That last part I always see mentioned in literature regarding soapfish, seems to me that some early ichthyologist had an unpleasant experience when trying to keep one as a pet… Grammistin has a slimy consistency and even tastes bitter(who's out here licking soapfish???) which is the reason for their common name.

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Hippolyte ventricosa H. Milne Edwards, 1837

Hippolyte shrimps are known to be very plastic with their variations in colorations and even morphology within just one species. The species Hippolyte varians is even known as the chameleon shrimp due to their ability to base their colors on their host algae. So it's little surprise to me that this Hippolyte ventricosa is exhibiting setae coverings that I've never seen before, though still intriguing. If looked closer you can see small and sparsely distributed clumps of setae sprouting from its abdomen, likely to help camouflage in the algae overgrown coral rubbles that I found it in.

[sendentaryworm]

Bispira tricyclia Schmarda, 1861

Worm neighbors, they exchange gossip and share planktonic tea.