Pacific Stomach Wing

[spatman]

if it wasn't for Jan K's excellent thread and images, i wouldn't even begin to know what this might be.

divernick spotted this at Redondo yesterday. as you can see, it was very small, maybe 3/4" fully extended. it looked very much like <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2242/179 ... 99bd_o.jpg" target="_blank">the picture Jan K posted</a>, except with a very pink "belly".

does anyone know how common/uncommon these are? also, how large do they get?

[Pez7378]

I'm not sure how common these are Matt, but Joe and I have only seen one at Mukilteo. It was pretty cool as it "winged" its way through the water. And when disturbed it stopped and just gently sank until it began to "swim" again. I was calling it a "batwinged Nudibranch" is that the same as a batwinged seaslug?

[spatman]

I'm not sure how common these are Matt, but Joe and I have only seen one at Mukilteo. It was pretty cool as it "winged" its way through the water. And when disturbed it stopped and just gently sank until it began to "swim" again.

that's the same behavior this one showed. how big was the one you saw?

[Pez7378]

Looks to be about the same size. I always try to make it a point to observe the things floating around in the water column as well as the things seen on the bottom. So far we've seen this guy, some Opalescent? squid just hanging around above thier eggs, some funny wormy like guys and all manner of tiny shrimp. Oh and last week we found a small 1/2" Stubby squid? just swimming along. It had wings too. I looked at some other pictures and didn't notice any wings. Is that what it was?

[enchantmentdivi]

I've only seen 2, both at Redondo. I consider it a pretty cool, rare find. So, congrats!

[coachrenz]

Seems like this must be the time of year for them. The last two dives I have done at Redondo, we saw one each time. Hadn't seen one for probably a year before these last two.

The ones I saw this last week were pretty small, less than an inch.

[LCF]

We saw one of these at Edmonds on the 17th, and another one at Lobster Shop Wall today. Both were quite small, with a body maybe a centimeter in width and two in length, and the wings extra.

But in 2005, when I took Fundies in November, we had a much larger one swim through the class. It distracted the videographer, who filmed it for a couple of minutes. That one was probably a couple of inches across the "wingspan".

They're very cool critters.

[whatevah]

Saw a couple of these (Pacific Wingfoot Snails) at Langley Tire Reef (Whidbey Island) last night - really amazing creatures. It is difficult to stop watching them - like watching hooded or giant nudibranchs swim. Those in your pictures are pretty much typical in size in my limited experience.

[dwashbur]

We saw our first one at Ediz Hook up in Port Angeles, then about a month ago we found two at Redondo. As you describe, when disturbed they just folded up and drifted to the bottom, looking for all the world like just another little snail shell until they decided it was safe to "fly" away again.