An amazing brief visit to the intertidal yesterday produced a nice small handful of easy species (edible crab, overflying mute swan), but the evening session was more exciting with 4 out of 4 species being lifers.
It was interesting to put the scaleworm Harmothoe imbricata (big!) with its relative Lepidonotus squamatus. From the books it's not always apparent what different animals they are. The Harmothoe is a magnificent beast as you can see below. Psamathe fusca I thought was going to be something sort of ordinary from the ragworm stable, but once under the lens it revealed its beauty, particularly in its colours as the green and pink resolved with closer inspection.
The worm that broke the mould was a nemertean which I briefly tried to ID as a terrestrial flatworm - it was near the top of the beach. Once it became apparent it wasn't, though, the marine books both held sufficient keys (I hope) to nail it as Cerebratulus fuscus. It was interesting to watch it submerged in sea water. I didn't like this group much either to begin with but they are growing on me, partly because of watching them in action.
All will be returned to the sea today after their brief visit ashore.
Even the seaweed was julaceous today...
Cerebratulus fuscus |
Scaleworms - for, um, scale |
Psamathe fusca |
Ceramium virgatum on a kelp stipe |
Numbers:
355 | cnidarian | Actinia equina | Beadlet anemone | |
356 | * | echinoderm | Amphipholis squamata | Small Brittlestar |
357 | fungus | Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma | A pyrenomycete | |
358 | mollusc | Littorina littorea | Common Periwinkle | |
359 | fungus | Pleospora herbarum | A fungus | |
360 | * | diptera | Geomyza tripunctata | An opomyzid fly |
361 | mollusc | Trochulus (Trochulus) hispidus | Hairy Snail | |
362 | mollusc | Cornu aspersum | Common Garden Snail | |
363 | dermaptera | Forficula auricularia | Common Earwig | |
364 | fungus | Melanomma pulvis-pyrius | A pyrenomycete | |
365 | * | collembola | lepidocyrtus cyaneus | A springtail |
366 | crustacean | Cancer pagurus | Edible crab | |
367 | bird | Cygnus olor | Mute Swan | |
368 | annelid | Spirobranchus triqueter | An annelid worm | |
369 | fish | Lipophrys pholis | Shanny | |
370 | * | annelid | Psamathe fusca | A ragworm |
371 | * | annelid | Harmothoe imbricata | A scale worm |
372 | * | invert-other | Cerebratulus fuscus | A nemertine worm |
373 | * | alga | Ceramium virgatum | A seaweed |
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