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Itty bitty bio babe ♥️

@ittybittybio

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Big fan of little things!
Nudibranch enthusiast in SoCal 🦀🌊
Microscopist during the day 🔬🧫
📸 Olympus TG-6 (mostly)

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Crazzzyyyy slug find this weekend!
Meet the Hamann’s Aeolid! The dramatic reds on this punk diva (🩸💀🩸) are really striking. There have been few recorded sightings of this slug and none that I can find with this distinct symmetrical patterning of the red coloration.

#lowtide #tidepools #nudibranch #seaslug #socal by @ittybittybio

The beast and its feast
•
Juvenile Black Seahare
Aplysia vaccaria

The smallest seahare I’ve ever seen! Just a couple mm long!! It looked like a tiny sapsucker at first but the ear nubs gave it away.

So fun to see the markings on the sea lettuce where it was scraping up all the good stuff 🥬It’s hard to believe that it’ll grow chihuahua sized some day! Thank you @ittybittybio for the great find! by @ittybittybio

It’s not #Docktober without an abundance of these lil nuggets 🥺 The spaghetti bryozoan at my local dock is full of cryptic slugs at the moment including ~lots~ of Los Angeles Goniodorids (pictured here)

#seaslug #dockfouling #nudibranch #socal by @ittybittybio

A little baby California Seahare!
These slugs (aplysia californica) were ~instrumental~ in the discovery of the neuronal basis of learning and memory beginning with Dr. Eric Kandel in the 1960s. Their nervous system is extremely simple and their individual neurons are large in size, allowing experimentation that isn’t possible in more complex organisms. 🧠 🔬

#lowtide #seahare #seaslug #sandiego #tidepools by @ittybittybio

Cockscomb nudibranchs are one of our most photogenic locals in the San Diego tide pools 📸 Here, the slug’s rhinophores are featured in a head on view framed by orange and blue-tipped cerata along the body.

#nudibranch #lowtide #seaslug #sandiego #tidepools by @ittybittybio

The elusive and extremely tiny Roller’s Aeolid! Eggs found from a different individual/site pictured at the end. If you can believe it, this was taken with my flash diffuser pressed up to the rock and the zoom maxed out. Sooooo small and such a treat!

Many thanks to the incredible Abbey for sharing this find with me! This is not the kind of slug you just stumble upon and Im so glad I got too see one 🥰🥰

#lowtide #tidepools #sandiego #nudibranch #seaslug by @ittybittybio

looonnnnnngggg boi in free fall
🔸🔸🔸
Fisher’s aeolid

#nudibranch #seaslug #tidepools #lowtide #sandiego by @ittybittybio

Have you ever seen a surface-stuck slug and wondered how it got there??
I most often see nudibranchs reach for the surface of tide pools from algae at the shallow edge. Once they have a hold of the surface tension, they glide around with ease 🌀🌀

Educational support by the pictured spotted dorid (Triopha maculata)
#nudibranch #seaslug #tidepools #socal #lowtide by @ittybittybio

Annulated nudibranchs are without a doubt the most beautiful sea slugs I’ve evvverrrrr seen.

This slug was not on my radar when I set out for a midnight tide pooling session earlier this month. The state of careful observation brought about by seeing something unknown made this find even more special ♥️♥️

#lowtide #socal #seaslug #nudibranch #tidepools by @ittybittybio

A summer of love for these two yellow-spotted cadlina 💛💛💛
Nudibranch gonopores are located near the slugs head on their right side. The orientation here is right for copulation although the gonopores themselves are obstructed from view! In some species, the engorged gonopores can be seen extending out from the slugs body
#nudibranchs #lowtide #tidepools #seaslug #socal by @ittybittybio

A moment for the babieeesssss!
I love seeing juvenile slugs and seeing how their morphology differs early in life. Sometimes these color/morphological differences can make them hard to identify without their adult features.

1-2: genus Triopha
3: Sorcerer’s dorid
4-5: Spotted dorid
6-7: genus Dendronotus
8: Red sponge dorid
9: Doto urak

#lowtide #tidepools #seaslug #nudibranch #socal by @ittybittybio

It’s been mollusk madness on the SoCal coast lately and that includes octopi!
I believe this is a two-spot octopus but I am no expert in octopus identification

#socal #lowtide #tidepools #octopus #ocean by @ittybittybio