April 2013, Halmahera, Indonesia ~ More soft coral mimics! Back in November, I posted a video of a nudibranch, Phyllodesmium rudmani, that mimics the soft coral, Xenia, upon which it feeds (click here to see the previous post). Ned wasn’t with me on that dive so last month, during our cruise through Halmahera aboard the Dewi Nusantara, our guide Yann made sure Ned saw this different species of nudibranch, which I think is Phyllodesmium jakobsenae, another predator of soft coral. Yann found two of them within a few meters of each other. The first, at the base of the soft coral, might be obvious to someone with the search image for the nudibranch. How he spotted the other, nestled into the soft coral polyps, is simply amazing! Watch a short video on our BlennyWatcher YouTube channel or below:
Another Coral Mimic
April 27, 2013
Categories: Spineless
Tags: Blennywatcher, Indonesia, Marine life behavior, nudibranch mimics coral, Phyllodesmium jakobsenae, scuba diving, soft coral, Xenia