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Additional Photos
swimming
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Melibe megaceras Gosliner, 1987
Maximum size: 30 mm.
Identification:
This
species has a transparent body lightly flecked with cream or light
brown. The cerata are smooth to weakly papillate and slender with long,
horn-like branches
extending from their tips. The branches may be whitish with red-brown tips. The notum has scattered elongate
papillae and the oral hood is small.
Natural history:
Melibe megaceras appears to be a rare species on
Maui--we've never seen it and we know of only one record. However,
Gosliner (1987) reports that it may be seasonally abundant on shallow
sand flats on Oahu where it typically rests with the cerata spread flat
against the sand. It may derive much of its nutrition from symbiotic
zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium microadriaticum) that it retains in its tissues. (Kempf, 1984)
Distribution:
Maui & Oahu: widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific.
Taxonomic notes:
It
was first recorded in Hawaii from Kaneohe Bay, Oahu by Terry
Gosliner on July 3, 1981.
Photo: John
Hoover: about 20 mm: Oahu; May 6, 1997.
Observations and comments:
Note
1: ( )
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