Thursday, June 10, 2010

Species List 09-06-2010 Flinders Reef





With very light westerly winds forecast we shot out to Flinders Reef on Wednesday aboard Mischief for a mid-week dive. No wind, no swell and so no surge greeted us upon arrival. We had one 70 minute dive. Huge schools of fish were feeding over the reef and we found 16 species of sea slugs as follows:

Aegires citrinus
Chromodoris elisabethina (the most abundant species on the day)
Chromodoris geometrica
Chromodoris kuiteri
Chromodoris lochi (4th pic)
Costasiella kuroshimae (with numerous egg masses)
Dermatobranchus sp. 1
Flabellina bicolor (2nd pic)
Hexabranchus sanguineus
Hypselodoris obscura
Hypselodoris whitei (Feeding, 1st pic)
Phyllidiella lizae
Phyllidiella pustulosa
Pteraeolidiella ianthina (Flinders has the largest specimens I have ever seen @ 180mm)
Thorunna halourga (very small specimen, 3rd pic)
Thuridilla neona