Details of the mauve-tipped tentacles. Cape Agulhas, Western Cape (2020) - iNaturalist Column smooth, orange to red, tentacles red or yellow, often mauve-tipped. Cannot readily retract tentacles or close up. 3-5 rows of bubble-like, orange vesicles and one row of spherules just outside tentacles. 50 - 100 mm in diameter. Found singly, because aggressively territorial,… Continue reading False plum anemone (Pseudactinia flagellifera)
Author: fockfish
Hartlaub’s Gull (Chroicocephalus hartlaubii)
Non-breeding adult cruising the rocky shores, in search of sustenance. Yzerfontein, Western Cape (2020) - iNaturalist Also known as the king gull. Short, thin and dark bill, with deep red legs. Eyes usually dark at all ages, but some birds have whitish eyes. Told from vagrant gulls in flight by grey underwing and mostly black… Continue reading Hartlaub’s Gull (Chroicocephalus hartlaubii)
Flame-patterned burnupena (Burnupena catarrhacta)
Whelk with a delicate flame pattern, and a slipper limpet (Crepidula porcellana) attached to its shell. Hondeklipbaai, Northern Cape (2020) - iNaturalist Previously know as Burnupena delalandii. Shell elongated (length twice width), smooth by crossed by numerous fine spiral ridges. Juveniles often patterned with alternating dark and light streaks or 'flames', later obscured by erosion… Continue reading Flame-patterned burnupena (Burnupena catarrhacta)
Eight-shell barnacle (Octomeris angulosa)
Old barnacle at the edge of a mussel bed (blue mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis), with the circle of apertures forming at its base. Yzerfontein, Western Cape (2020). Moderately large with eight shell plates extremely rugged, irregular, massive, generally much corroded, steeply conical or even sub-cylindrical. Colour dirty-white, often slightly tinted yellow from the investing membrane, and… Continue reading Eight-shell barnacle (Octomeris angulosa)
Knobbly anemone (Bunodosoma capense)
Details of the tentacles and the papillae. Mouille Point, Cape Town, Western Cape (2020) - iNaturalist Previously known as Bunodosoma capensis. Column streaked with small non-adhesive knobs, called papillae. Up to 96 spherules present in fosse.Papillae are usually darker and brighter in contrast with the background colour, which can be cream-white, pink, orange, red, blue… Continue reading Knobbly anemone (Bunodosoma capense)
Granular limpet (Scutellastra granularis)
An eroded limpet next to a younger limpet with its 'tentacles' out. Jacobsbaai, Western Cape (2020). Previously known as Patella granularis. Roughly oval, with approximately 50 fine ribs textured with white granules. Often eroded, smoothing the ribs and revealing a brown cap. Interior blue-white with a central brown patch and a dark border that is… Continue reading Granular limpet (Scutellastra granularis)
Dwarf cushion star (Parvulastra exigua)
Yellow starfish wrapped around algae. Doringbaai, Northern Cape (2020). Previously known as Patiriella exigua and Asterina exigua. Tiny, flattened, pentagonal starfish, with poorly developed arms. Dorsal surface made up of tile-like plates, each with a cluster of tiny knob-like spines. Gonophores on lower (oral) surface.Uniformly khaki-green of the West Coast, but variegated patterns of orange,… Continue reading Dwarf cushion star (Parvulastra exigua)
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