Phyllodesmium macphersonae from sthn Queensland

Dear Gary,

Thanks for these photos. As you can see from the brown patches, which are clusters of zooxanthellae, P. macphersonae is one of the species of Phyllodesmium which is solar powered. Those species we have information for get their zooxanthellae from the soft-corals on which they feed. However P. macphersonae remains a puzzle because we have never found it feeding, or even associated with a likely food item. Since you say it is quite common on the Sunshine Coast perhaps you could add it to your 'to do list' and see if you could photograph it with some likely food items.

Concerning the apparently 'branched' cerata. This is a trick of the photographs. This species has the cerata in each row almost exactly underneath the ones above. What you can see here are the tips of the lower cerata poking out from under the uppermost ceras in each row.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman