Gary and David on this excursion consisting of 1 x 70 minute and 1 x 74 minute dives in water depths from 16 m to 21 m. 8 m viz, 25 C water temp and some very light surge.
Coles Hole is located on the same part of the Gneering Shoals as Clown Reef where we dived two days previous. It surprised us that the visibility in that short time had dropped by a third. Nevertheless conditions were great although the finding of slugs was frustratingly slow at first. Some of the not-so-common finds included Crimora sp. 1, Glossodoris sp. 4, Marianina rosea and Verconia sp. 2.
# On both our last dive at Clown Reef and also during this dive we found specimens of Hypselodoris maculosa exhibiting a different looking dorsum. It has two distinctive broad longitudinal yellow stripes either side of a central white stripe. Whilst we recognize that this species has traditionally been considered highly variable there is also the possibility that cryptic species exist within all these variations. We will look to perhaps separating what we feel at this point may be different species just so we do not lose track of them.
Number of each species sighted: 1st dive/2nd dive
* Species with highest specimen count
Aegires citrinus -/2
Aegires flores 1/2
Bulbaeolidia alba 1/-
Chromodoris elisabethina 1/3
Chromodoris lochi -/1
Crimora sp. 1 -/1
Dermatobranchus rodmani 1/-
Doriprismatica atromarginata -/3
Facelina bourailli 2/-
Glossodoris sp. 4 -/1
Hypselodoris godeffroyana 1/-
# Hypselodoris maculosa -/1
Hypselodoris maritima -/1
Marianina rosea -/1
Mexichromis trilineata -/1
Phyllidia exquisita 1/-
Phyllidia varicosa -/1
Phyllidiella annulata -/1
Phyllidella pustulosa 1/-
Sagaminopteron psychedelicum 1/-
Tenellia sp. 33 1/-
Thorunna halourga -/1
* Thuridilla splendens 3/4
Verconia sp. 2 1/-
Coles Hole
Substrate - lots of hard coral cover
Looking, looking, looking
Bulbaeolidia alba
Phyllidia exquisita
Sagaminopteron psychedelicum
Facelina bourailli
Aegires flores
Mexichromis trilineata
Crimora sp. 1
Doriprismatica atromarginata
Hypselodoris maritima with eggs
Marianina rosea
Chromodoris elisabethina
Thorunna halourga
Chromodoris lochi
Phyllidiella annulata
Surface conditions
Thuridilla splendens
Tenellia sp. 33
Verconia sp. 2
Hypselodoris godeffroyana
Glossodoris sp. 4
Phyllidia varicosa
Aegires citrinus
