Saturday, August 2, 2008

Ghosts and butterflies

The last day of my intensive diving holiday - 11th July 2008 - brought several beauties into my life: Perhaps the most beguiling was the white Ghost goby Pleurosicya boldinghi - found on a lonely white soft coral sprouting on a broad expanse of mud in the dusky gloom of a late afternoon; a rainstorm on the surface. (Being partially translucent, one photo has the flash diffusely reflected off its swim bladder like a soft pearly inner light. As my son would say: "Sweet!") Add to this a couple of fishes only described in the last few years - the Sand-goby Fusigobius melacron and the Sandperch Parapercis lineopunctata. Lastly (for new species) the Butterflyfish Chaetodon baronessa (a real surprise given how unusual it is to see such spectacular large fish for the first time after two years) and the Cardinalfish Apogon multilineatus. So, this brings me finally to a total of 360 fish species logged in TARP. Next task will be to cross-check with Gerry Allen's 1992 list and see what our combined total comes to.

Of course, I'm still picking up the odd new colour morph - in this case the Initial Phase form of Parrotfish Chlorurus capistratoides - and better photos of previously seen fish (Parrotfish Scarus ghobban, Snapper Lutjanus quinquelineatus, Frogfish Antennarius striatus and Dartfish Ptereleotris hanae).

And the last (but not least) beauty of the day - the Nudibranch in the photo, from the family PHYLLIDIIDAE, seen on Plate Coral Reef off the back of Sapi island.

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