Imagine swimming through the waters of Bali when you spot a sweetness of donuts shuffling along , the ghostly - whitened tissue of its spongelike organic structure seemingly coiled into six perfect gyre that line the foreign - same critter ’s back . You ’ve just encounteredDoto greenamyeri , and it ’s a real weirdo .
nickname the sinker ocean slug for obvious reasons , this nautical sea slug latterly starred in Bryan Blauvelt’sUnderwater Photographer of the YearMacro Runner - Up - come through range , Dazzling Donut Doto . Blauvelt was dive off Tulamben when he spotted the animal , and used a few tricks of the light to produce an preternatural image .
“ I want to leave this inspirational place with a unique trope of Doto greenamyeri , one of the most salient subjects in Tulamben , ” said Blauvelt in astatement . “ I created a dramatic shine result on the sea slug with my strobe and snoot , and completed the frame by backlighting the innkeeper hydrozoan with subtle blue light to balance the typography . give thanks you to my incredible templet Rudolfi Sikome at Alam Batu for holding a torch in position for the backlighting effect on this image , and for a productive and fun week of picture taking ! ”
In 2015,Doto greenamyeriwas among nine colourful new nudibranchs delineate by world - renowned expert Dr Tery Gosliner . Alongside the pinkish - and - orangeDoto splendidisima , it was describe in southern Africa , a region with various temperate marine environments that bluster remarkable ocean slug richness .
Doto ocean sluggard provender by pierce the stems of hydrozoan and sucking out their national fluid . Those gimcrack " doughnut " are what ’s sleep with as cerata , floppy projection that are found on aeolid nudibranchs but that total in very different shapes and size . They contain branches of the digestive system , and in some species of sea slug end in what ’s called a cnidosac – a office where they can stash away the stingingnematocystsof the cnidarians they eat .
It ’s similar to how some sea punch have evolved totake chloroplastsfrom the alga they eat via what is known as kleptoplasty , subsist off sunshine – which also could be how other metal money could facilitate the power to decollate their heads andgrow a whole novel body .
Suddenly wearing a bunch of doughnut on your back does n’t seem so unknown , huh ?
