Favoritos de f-sundw

Caught in the wild and photographed nearby in an aquarium. Bell is 20–25 mm tall.
Note tall, conical aspect of the bell and the gonad extends from nearly the top of the manubrium to the mouth (just a very short section at the top of the long manubrium is without gonad).

Dia 82, un individuo.

Day 82, one individual.

Relacionado con // Related to:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667158
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667199
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667420

Haltidytes crassus was a relatively common species at the time of its first description. Since then - probably due to the influence of industrial agriculture - this pretty gastrotrich has become very rare.

The main characteristic of H. crassus are the five dorsal and three ventral “jumping spines”, with which the animal catapults itself out of the danger zone when threatened.

Dorsal (juvenile animal); ds: dorsal spines (5 pairs).

The long, caudal and hair-shaped last ventral pair of spines, which far overhang the body and cross each other in resting position, is conspicuous. Three ciliary rings on the head are used for swimming locomotion, while the ventral ciliary bands typical of gastrotrichs are used for gliding over the substrate.

Ventral; cr: 3 ciliary rings for locomotion; js: jump spines; cs: long caudal spines; se: seta on papillae.

The posterior palps - as in all members of the genus Hatidytes - are on distinct papillae.

Median; br: “brain”; ph: pharynx; oo: mature ovum; in: “intestine”; mf: muscle fibers that move the jumping spines.

The internal anatomy has some peculiarities. For example, distinct muscle fibers can be seen that couple to the attachment sites of the jumping spines. Adhesive glands and the associated adhesive tubes are not present in this genus.

The typical movement and behavior of the animals can be seen in the following YouTube video:

Movie about Haltidytes crassus

A few washing ashore.
This genus due to exumbrella cnidocyst tracks and radial canal lengths (from NIWA memoir 113). But not H. prolifer due to tentacle count and shape.
I wonder if these are the common solitary hydroids we get around the coast.

~3mm tall

79.5 mm.
Jill Griffiths Collection.
''Approaching fullmoon. Stormy seas. Within 2hrs lowtide and yet running very high'' From the label.
This is the first (and currently only one) accurate observation of Argonauta argo from NZ on Inaturalist.

Native bush, in wet plant litter among fallen Nikau fronds.
Body length 37 mm.(antennae not included)
Probably unnamed. I would call it Peripatoides aff. indica or P. aff. aurorbis.

Absolutely splendid & my very best find in 2022.
I am still crazy excited by this. The colour was literally velvet.
I released the individual after photography.
My post of this Velvet worm achieved 100k likes and 11 million impressions on my twitter(url)!

Comments: this was the largest of any “bamboosicle” I have ever witnessed in person, dry or fresh. I so wish I were the one to find it in the field, and could have therefore photographed it in situ, but stumbling upon it back in the lab was still a pure delight. the final image shows some last-minute shots of the largest fruiting body — which had the heft and overall gestalt of a chicken pot pie — with my hand an a coin for scale, respectively. this species’ size, locality, and truly shelf-like growth habit all make the ID unmistakable as A. polyporoides. also note the typically long, filiform ascospores ejecting against the black background in the close-up shots.

Originally posted to Mushroom Observer on Apr. 29, 2019.

Collected in late summer at the surface in Friday Harbor, photographed in an aquarium. Bell diameter was 30 mm. A rare visitor near the end of the season, when there were very few other jellies in the water. See a beached one August 2021 from Homer, Alaska at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/95334168.

Naturalised in a wooded stream valley close to the sea. Population of several hundred individual plants. Anthers yellow and filaments swollen. Not mentioned in the county flora or recorded for the vice county in the BSBI database.