West Indian ovulid in Bonaire

May 27, 2003
From: Sebastian Schulherr


Bonaire is in the Netherland Antilles, the Dutch Caribbean, near Aruba and Curacao, about fifty miles north of Venezuela. April 22 we were taking a late morning dive north of Small Wall, famous for the underwater webcam nearby. We found these guys in fifty feet seawater in a sloping reef of sand and coral heads on a gorgonian. Using the Paul Humann Reef Creatures book we tentatively identified them as West Indian Simnia by the little white bumps on their sides.

We only picked up a digital camera housing last year, after we had between four and five hundred dives under our weightbelts. We dive in Bonaire a lot, and like to find interesting new things. Digital pictures beat my slate sketches hands down.
Sebastian Schulherr

nyfx@earthlink.net

Schulherr, S., 2003 (May 27) West Indian ovulid in Bonaire. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10004

Dear Sebastian,
I have a few 'slug-like' animals on the Forum to illustrate just what is not a slug, but I can't go into any detail about them or I would be swamped with messages on ovulids, flatworms etc. This is indeed an ovulid, sometimes known as 'false cowries'. Many, like your animals, feed on gorgonians and hide their shells with, often colourful, flaps of skin.

We are certainly interested in photos you take of any sea slugs from the Caribbean. We don't know very much about these animals in the Caribbean so any new information and photos of living animals is potentially very valuable. Even photos of things you think are common could be useful as we have very little idea about their distribution throughout the region or their colour variation.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (May 27). Comment on West Indian ovulid in Bonaire by Sebastian Schulherr. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/10004

Factsheet

Ovulids (False Cowries)

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