Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Slipper-y love

Slippers and romance may make you think of Cinderella but perhaps not after this. Interactions follow twixt slipper lobsters. These were taken on the same dive (a night dive in 2007) but feature 2 different species of Slipper lobster (aka bug aka spanish lobster).

slippers

This is (I think) Parribacus antarcticus, the Sculptured Slipper Lobster. I'm not sure if this was a fight or something more romantic but as you can see they are nose to nose and were pushing one another back and forth like sumo or little bulldozers.

slippers2

This looks like it was a bit more of a romantic encounter. I think this is a Scyllarides sp. although I haven't managed to track down which. One is following another nose to tail and will shortly thereafter, well you know....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

After looking through your blog, I can see you have a great respect for the natural beauty you have the opportunity to be around. I too appreciate the subtle beauty of nature, along with its intricacies. I note that you have stated being a naturalist and I am interested in your take on some things. Growing up in the church, I have personally always assumed God as being the author of nature, but in recent years have found many of my fellow nature-lovers to be coming from the naturalistic worldviews. I would enjoy an unfolding of your views.