liamragan 的最愛

This guy was just a wee red blob, but I knew it was something interesting from previous observations from up north :-)

The last image has a scale (mm and 1/2 mm divisions), the bell is about 4mm high.

It can curl up its tentacles so they are just little knobs, which it does when swimming. It can then unfurl those tentacles and drift with them extended.

In rocky exposed ephemeral pool with Branchinecta cornigera. Apparently capable of swimming, though seems to prefer walking or hiding in sediment at bottom. 1.70 mm length. Denticles on anterior margin of right valve. Last photo taken by Gordon Green

Specimens deposited at the Royal BC Museum.

Collected by @shawnb2 and IDd together (mostly him) with the help of Starzomski’s lab. 1.71 mm in length with bumpy dentricles seems to point to genus but size doesn’t match any of the listed for Canada, so possible we made a mistake or new species for Canada. Possible as it seems Vancouver Island was never sampled, and this was found in the same vernal pool as a species of fairy shrimp that was new for Canada.

Specimens deposited at Royal BC Museum

Around 5pm today in the middle of the road. Large 3ft or more snake. Hisisng, loud, almost like a rattle noise. But no tail rattle. Defensive while I kept distance. Aggressive. Never took its eyes off me. Opened mouth often. No teeth. Black eyes. Black tongue. Large center. Moments prior a large barred owl flew past my windshield and watched me as I approached snake. An epic moment in my day. I was going to pick up my son who was with a native medicine woman.

Found under a log in heavily shaded mixed forest.

Sikes (2019) lists only two species of Japygoid in Canada, Occasjapyx americanus and Evalljapyx saundersi; a Parajapyx is also mentioned, but expected to be a misidentified E. saundersi. No other species are predicted to occur. From Allen (2002), given the macrochaetae are barbed, and trichobothria are present on antennal segments 4-6 (most visible on 6th segment in second last photo), this seems to best match Evalljapyx saundersi.

Actinoptychus adriaticus var. pumila Grunow 1883

Class: Coscinodiscophyceae, Order: Coscinodiscophycales, Family: Heliopeltaceae, Genus: Actinoptychus. (Guiry and Guiry 2022).

Description:

• Chloroplasts large and numerous.
• In girdle view raised and depressed sectors are apparent.
• Valves are disc shaped.
• Diameter is 13.5 µm (30 µm Lee and Chang 1996).
• Valves divided into 12 sectors that are alternatively raised and depressed.
• Labiate process internally located in the center of the raised sectors.
• External labiate process located between the valve face and valve mantle and is open and round to elliptical in shape.
• Areolation of the raised sectors is linear, with 22 areolae in 10 µm.
• Areolation of the depressed sectors is non-linear, having 14 areolae in 10 µm.
• A narrow hyaline rim at the outer margin of the depressed sector.

• Hyalines in the central area are distinct.
  (Lee and Chang 1996)

Images of Actinoptychus senarius from Chivers Pt., Wallace Island, Trincomali Channel, (TC), Southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada. June 25, 2022.

Actinoptychus spp. are coastal marine diatoms, mostly benthic, likely cosmopolitan and solitary (sometimes in chains). Cells seen here are discoid. The valves of Actinoptychus are divided into alternatively raised and depressed sectors, some as many as 20. (Hasle et al. 1997, Horner, 2002, Hoppenrath et al. 2009). Actinoptychus spp has been reported in West Coast marine waters by Gran and Angst (1932), Cupp (1943), Rao et al. (1976), Shim (1976), Tynni (1986) and Pienitz et al. (2003). This is the first report of Actinoptychus adriaticus var. pumila for the Salish Sea, though it is now recognized that this species is common to the Trincomali Channel.

Methods:
Actinoptychus adriaticus var. pumila cells were collected from a 60 µm net general plankton tow at Chivers Pt., Wallace Island, Trincomali Channel, Southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada. June 25, 2022. Live cells were pipetted onto 12 mm rd. coverslips on a glass slide and treated 3-4 times (drying out each time) with concentrated nitric acid at 75C on a hotplate. After heating to 250C, the coverslips are bathed upright in mesh holders in 2 x 100 mL. of distilled and deionized water to remove salts. After the coverslips are dried, they are mounted on 13 mm aluminum stubs then gold sputter coated. Imaged with a Hitachi TM4000 scanning electron microscope (SEM). Many thanks to Andrew Simon of IMERSS for collecting the plankton sample and Elaine Humphrey (UVIC) and Hitachi HiTech for the use of the TM4000. Grateful assistance to Arjan van Asselt for lab assistance.

References:

Cupp, E. E. (1943). Marine Plankton Diatoms of the West Coast of North America. Bull. Scrips. Inst. Oceanography. 5: 1-238.

Gran, H. H. and Angst, E.C. (1932). Plankton diatoms of Puget Sound. Publ. Puget Sd. Mar. Biol. Sta. 1929-1931. 7:417-519.

Hasle, G.R. & Syvertsen, E.E. (1997). Marine Diatoms. In: Identifying Marine Phytoplankton. (Tomas, C.R. Eds), pp. 34-36. Plate 1, page 32. San Diego: Academic Press.

Hoppenrath, M., Elbrachter, M., Drebes, G. (2009) Marine Phytoplankton, Selected microphytoplankton species from the North Sea around Helgoland and Sylt. pp. 45-46, figs. 18g-m. E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbunchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany.

M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2020. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 19 September 2020.

Lee, J. H. and Chang, M. (1996). Morphological variations of the Marine Diatom Genus Actinoptychus in the Coastal Waters of Korea. Algae, The Korean Journal of Phycology. Vol. 11(4): 365-374.

Shim, J. H. (1976). Distribution and Taxonomy of Planktonic Marine Diatoms in the Strait of Georgia, B.C. Phd. Thesis, UBC.

Tynni, R. (1986). Observations of diatoms on the coast of the state of Washington. Geological Survey of Finland, Report of Investigation 75.

Van Heurck, H. (1882). Synopsis des Diatomées de Belgique. Atlas. pp. pls LXXVIII-CXXXII [78-132 and supplementary pls 22 bis,82bis, 83bis, 83ter, 95bis], tables genres. Anvers: Ducaju et Cie.

I promise there’s an animal in this, first 2 pictures are the nose, 3 is head on showing white chin/throat and 4 is the same as 3 but with an outline showing the side of the head/neck. Got better looks than these pictures and it definitely has too much white and wrong build to be a young mink.