Tiny, but attractive.
Phacelia parryi, I think, but I'm mostly just guessing from images.
Large! Colorful! Appealing! And it comes with eggs!
Apparently planthoppers in the family Issidae have these insane tufts emerging from their backsides when they're nymphs. How crazy is that.
ID provided by Andy Hamilton on BugGuide.
I think this is another issid, and it might be the adult form of the nymphs I saw, as it was right next to them on the same plant. However, this looks a lot like Danepteryx, but the nymphs look like Dictyobia.
ID provided by Andy Hamilton on BugGuide.
This has been stumping me. I figured it was non-native, but wasn't having any luck searching around or perusing CalFlora. Finally looked at the LA/Santa Monica CNPS site and saw it there. Weird plant.
...that ghost shrimp are sweet. This is an outer coast species, unlike the only other one I've seen, Neotrypaea californiensis, which prefers muddy, protected bays.
These snails were big, beautiful, and omnipresent. It's wonderful to see a beautiful shell, and then notice an even more beautiful animal within. The shells even have bright green patch on the inside. Very cool.
These live in burrows with the ghost shrimp. Wish I'd taken the time for a better shot...
I knew this was a cone, but I didn't touch it, because some cones can kill. Guess I should have done my homework, because there's only one cone in CA, and it's not dangerous. For the unaware, cones hunt worms, snails, and even fish, by shooting venom-filled retractable harpoons out of that tube in front.
"he [...] heard me give the shout of the conchologist, that is to say, the most piercing cry that human throat can utter." – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
There were so many cowries, and they were enormous. So cool.
In addition to showing off the ever-beautiful Cadlina flavomaculata and Cadlina modesta (and a blurry Tritonia myrakeenae), I think this pic does a decent job displaying how different the under-rock habitat can look south of Pt. Conception! I was in awe.
These big, gregarious chitons were everywhere!
This was fairly common, and as BPT mentions, pretty hardy for a brittle star. Not sure what the little guy is. Ophiothrix, maybe?
...Pycnogonum stearnsi, but too small for me to tell what.
Basing the ID on the banded arms, relatively large spines, and it's podia-based movement (see video).
Maybe all abs are this fast, but I'm just used to seeing them clamped down and immobile.
Somehow Tritonia myrakeenae became a bystander in many of the day's pics. Aeolidiella oliviea is a pretty sweet slug that I haven't seen since one turned up out of the blue at Fitzgerald a few years ago. Found two together under a rock at Ellwood, where they are apparently regulars.
Brenna found this one, and had to repeat the name about ten times before I could even get the sound of it. Strange little dorid!
The outer-coast buddy of Haminoea vesicula, that weird, super-abundant slug of Albany Bulb. I love its slightly iridescent, semi-translucent shell.
Tritonia festiva and Tritonia myrakeenae aren't talking, apparently.
This is what's fun about naturalizing with experts: I would have called this slug Flabellina trilineata, been glad of meeting an old aquaintance, and moved on. But Jeff's kids found some, and Jeff noticed the smooth rhinophores and light cnidosacs, which would apparently suggest Flabellina bertschi instead, a southern species more commonly encountered from Baja to Costa Rica. Still waiting on a definitive ID, but cool!
Not 100% if I could ID this one myself in the field. Jeff's kids found it, along with a metric ton of other slugs. An amazing pair of pint-sized naturalists!
