sealord > This image shows the items left on the small pebble beach by La Valette bathing pools on Guernsey's east coast after a warm sunny day.  The litter items were collected at 2130 on 1 June 2009 and photographed the following morning.
File No. 2130 020609 4866
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
sealord > Three flatworms are in this photograph of a small area of a compound ascidian (or sea squirt) Botrylloides sp..  The native species of this ascidian is Botrylloides leachi but the invasive ascidian Botrylloides violaceus is spreading in the English Channel and it is not yet known whether this ascidian colony is the invasive species or the native species.  Dr. John Bishop and Dr. Gretchen Lambert tell me that the easiest way to tell the ascidian colonies apart is by looking at the ascidian larvae, which are not visible in this colony.  World authority on ascidians, Dr. Gretchen Lambert wrote "I also wondered if the orange Botrylloides is Botrylloides violaceus. I looked very carefully at the photo but there are no visible brooded embryos, which are the best way to tell this species (apart from the native species Botrylloides leachi)."  Dr. Lambert recommends that I collect some colonies, tear them apart carefully, and look for huge brooded larvae in the tunic. "They will usually be pink, no matter what the colour of the colony is."  She writes "Botrylloides violaceus colonies are always a solid color--all orange, or all purple, etc. The larvae are more than 1 mm in diameter, spherical, and when mature have 24-32 lateral ampullae arranged in parallel around the anterior end like a little mop. In Botrylloides leachi the larvae are small, and brooded inside the zooids and not in the tunic."  

There appear to be two species of flatworm in this image of a close-up of the ascidian colony.  One of the flatworms is gliding over another and heading to the lower right of the image. This image was taken south of the Lihou Island causeway on Guernsey's west coast on the 10 May 2009.  The cryptic coloration of the flatworms makes them difficult to see.  After 14 years of rock pooling on Guernsey's coast this is the first time I have noticed these flatworms.  Their identity has not yet been determined.  But they appear to be common.  This link provides a possible identification, which remains to be verified:   http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~bu6/flat0482.html
File No. 100509 3973
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
sealord > I think this flatworm is Cycloporus papillosus. Two individuals were lying on a large colony of the compound ascidian Botryllus schlosseri, on the base of a rock, just south of the Lihou Island causeway.  This flatworm was photographed having glided off the ascidian colony on the 9 May 2009.  The Botryllus schlosseri colony had been excavated and several deposits of very small eggs were deposited in the depression.  I do not know if the flatworms produced the eggs or some other species such as a mollusc.
File No. 090509 3943
©RLLord sealordphotography.net
fishinfo@guernsey.net
sealord > La Valette bathing pools >  Goniodoris castanea south Lihou causeway 100509 ©RLLord 4069 smg
sealord > La Valette bathing pools >  Havelet wave over wall 100308 ©RLLord 21-944 smg
sealord > La Valette bathing pools >  Caterpillar St Martins Point 011008 1661 RLLord smg
sealord > This hover fly larva and cocoon was found by Harvey Adams in a somewhat fetid upper-shore tide pool in the splash zone at Portelet on Guernsey's west coast on the 1 August 2008.  These larvae are known as rat tailed larvae because of the 'tail' which is actually a breathing tube. These larvae develop in pools with an abundance of decaying organic matter so the breathing tube is required to obtain oxygen from the atmosphere.  Entomologist Dr. Charles David of the Guernsey Biological Records Centre   http://www.biologicalrecordscentre.gov.gg/   wrote that as "they are in a rock pool they are more likely to be Eristalinus aeneus, which is common round the coast."  Dr. Charles David pointed me to this link for more information:   
http://www.hoverfly.org.uk/viewtopic.php?p=391&sid=8fe30d9fbd69f74e7eff1b9575f6c547

File No. 010808 6273
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
sealord > This beetle, Ctenopius sulphureus, was walking over the sand at the top of Shell Beach, Herm Island.  The identification was made by entomologist Dr. Charles David of the Guernsey Biological Record Centre.    http://www.biologicalrecordscentre.gov.gg/

©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
sealord > A telephone pole washed up on the beach at Petit Bot on Guernsey's south coast.  The wooden pole was covered in common goose barnacles, Lepas anatifera.  On the 25th October 2004 these goose barnacles were dying and attracting seaweed flies.  Entomologist Dr. Charles David of the Guernsey Biological Records Centre tells me that this fly belongs to the genus Fucellia.  Another entomologist told me that this fly is male.
File No. 251004 24-755
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
This image shows the items left on the small pebble beach by La Valette bathing pools on Guernsey's east coast after a warm sunny day. The litter items were collected at 2130 on 1 June 2009 and photographed the following morning.
File No. 2130 020609 4866
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
sealord > This image shows the items left on the small pebble beach by La Valette bathing pools on Guernsey's east coast after a warm sunny day.  The litter items were collected at 2130 on 1 June 2009 and photographed the following morning.
File No. 2130 020609 4866
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
This image shows the items left on the small pebble beach by La Valette bathing pools on Guernsey's east coast after a warm sunny day. The litter items were collected at 2130 on 1 June 2009 and photographed the following morning.
File No. 2130 020609 4866
©RLLord
fishinfo@guernsey.net
See photo in gallery

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