Indonesia: Flores + Komodo + Bali - July 2011
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text:
I take you back to the east of Flores, in Indonesia, for a special sequence "nudibranchs". In the bay of MaumereThese small sea slugs abound. I discovered there species that I had never met before!
The classics
To start, a small series of nudibranchs relatively common in the Asia-Pacific area. I don't know all of them by their scientific name (I should take the time to look for them in the identification books), but I really enjoy shooting them underwater.
Here is a first bouquet, colorful, bristly or pustular, depending on the species.
Small rarities
I also had the opportunity to meet rare slugs. Not new, but they are rarities, compared to those above.
Unpublished and unknown
Finally, the height of excitement for macro divers, like me: finding an unknown nudibranch! This is something new, something never seen before, as far as I am concerned. If some of you have already met these creatures and even know their name, do not hesitate to let me know.
There is this one, which, although quite large and fleshy, in the 4-5 centimeters long, is rather difficult to spot on the gray-brown sand, from which it barely stands out:
The little pink and pale green thing with spots, below, must be less than 5 millimeters long. I had a hard time getting a vaguely drinkable picture, where you can distinguish something:
Well, the thing below. Maybe 4-5 centimeters, too. A small gelatinous and translucent heap, armed with two whips bristling with filaments on its back, which seem to be used to move (and probably to feed?). We can only see the dark red borders of the dress under the light of the flash. My guide explained to me that it was not a nudibranch, that it was rather like a "jelly fish", a jellyfish... Quite an oddity of nature, in any case. I put two pictures of it so that you can better appreciate the beast...