Category Archives: Invertebrate

Entodesma navicula: Northwest ugly clam–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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es_absolnew

The siphons of Entodesmata navicula Northwest ugly clam. Photo by Erik Schauff

Staff member Erik Schauff  sent me this image which I had not been able to identify so after sending it over to the experts, Andy Lamb identified it.  It normally has a shorter reach of the siphons and a more orange colour.

Classification:  ( WoRMS)
Animalia (Kingdom)
Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
Subclass Heterodonta
Infraclass Euheterodonta
Order Anomalodesmata
Superfamily Pandoroidea
Family Lyonsiidae
Genus Entodesmata
Species: E. navicula (Adams & Reeve, 1850)
Common Name Northwest ugly clam.
Return to the Race Rocks Taxonomy Index

The Race Rocks Taxonomy files are the result of collaboration between students, faculty, staff and Volunteers of Lester Pearson College— Garry Fletcher

Pteraster tesselatus: Slime star –The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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A useful defense mechanism is evident in the slime stars. They will fill a bucket full of slime when picked up, this can be toxic to other invertebrates.

Slime star photograph by Ryan Murphy

Slime star photograph by Ryan Murphy,2010

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Subphylum: Eleutherozoa
Class: Asteroidea
Order: Velatida
Family: Pterasteridae
Genus: Pteraster
Species: P. tesselatus

rmjellystar

Slime star and nudibranch–photo by Ryan Murphy

Other Members of the Phylum Echinodermata at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.  2014 Garry Fletcher

 

Beroe sp. : Ctenophore-Comb jelly–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Ryan Murphy took this image of a Ctenpphore in 2010. This is one of the large forms of “plankton” in our waters.

Combjelly

Phylum Ctenophora – Sea gooseberries & comb jellies
Class Nuda – Sea gooseberries & comb jellies
Order Beroida
Family Beroidae
Genus Beroe

References
http://faculty.washington.edu/cemills/Ctenophores.html: This reference provides a good general description of the characteristics of Ctenophores . Note the discussion on the fact that they are not bioluminescent as many believe.

Claudia Mills and Stephen Haddock have a technical chapter of Ctenophores with good diagrams.

This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by  the students, faculty, volunteers and staff of Lester B. Pearson College– 2014-Garry Fletcher

 

Equinox

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Today was a quiet day, weather-wise, with none of the drama of yesterday. We are slipping quietly into autumn with light winds. The wind has gone almost full circle today, from southeast and rain in the early morning to light westerly in the afternoon and now light to northeasterly breezes as the sun sets. The barometer climbed a little out of its slump and is beginning to fall again as day ends.

There was quite a bit of traffic in the reserve today with whales to the west. A total of 17 tour boats were noted, stopping by to view seals and sea lions. Many more went by fast, well on either side of the reserve.

rmbroodinanem

A field of Epiactis prolifera, showing the high variability in colouration– photo by Ryan Murphy.

Few ecological observations were made today, although I did notice Cross-jellies in the water off the jetty when I was sampling seawater. Cross-jellies or Microcoma cellularia, have four radial canals which make an X on their fairly flat bell which is why they are called cross-jellies. They are one of a few hydromedusae that have been shown to seek out food by smell or chemosensory reception. They were in the very smelly, sea lion “gack” water and probably pulled in here by the tidal currents but it is cool to contemplate that an animal with no brain can make choices and behave in certain ways to achieve things.

The marine invertebrate life at Race Rocks is really rich. Even the inter-tidal is spectacular and the sub-tidal has even more species and layres. Even though it is fairly close to Victoria, the marine ecology of the Reserve is more like the wave-exposed open coast habitat that I am used to in Nuu-chah-nulth-aht territories. A lot of the productivity and diversity here has to do with the amazing currents and the upwelling they produce.

Today was a day of small projects including getting the EPIRB information off of the Whaler, stowing gasoline, doing radio checks and radio watch for CAS, fixing the fence and trying to fix the wind direction indicator input. I am really looking forward to working with three first year Marine Science classes from Pearson College this week and the first students arrive tomorrow. I hope they enjoy observing the sea lions and adding to their journals with new species entries.

Ascidia paratropa : Glassy tunicate –The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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glasstunicate

Glass tunicate image by Ryan Murphy. ID by Rick Harbo Sept 2014

Phylum Chordata,
Subphylum Urochordata,
Class Ascidiacea,
Order Enterogona
Family Ascidiidae
Suborder Phlebobranchia
Genus Ascidia
Species paratropa
(Huntsman, 1912)

 

 

 

 

 

This is a solitary tunicate, 10-15 cm tall.. We find these only occasionally at Race Rocks, sub-tidally  at about 10-15 metres. The colonial ascidians are always more abundant.

Other Members of the Subohylum urochordata at Race Rocks 
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 name –year (PC)

Aequorea victoria, crystal jelly : The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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aequorea

Aequorea in a kelp bed at Race Rocks, photo by Chris Blondeau

Kingdom: Animalia Subkingdom: Eumetazoa Phylum: Cnidaria Subphylum: Medusozoa Class: Hydrozoa Subclass: Leptolinae Order: Leptomedusae Suborder: Conica Family: Aequoreidae Genus: Aequorea Species: A. victoria The following quote  is from Wikipedia.. noted here because of the reference to Dr. Anita Brinckmann-Voss.

“Aequorea victoria, also sometimes called the crystal jelly, is a bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish, or hydromedusa, that is found off the west coast of North America. This species is thought to be synonymous with Aequorea aequorea of Osamu Shimomura, the discoverer of green fluorescent protein (GFP). Shimomura together with Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry[1] for the discovery and development of this protein as an important biological research tool. Originally the victoria species was supposed to designate the variant found in the Pacific, and the aequorea designation was used for specimens found in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The species name used in GFP purification was later disputed by M.N. Arai and A. Brinckmann-Voss (1980),[2] who decided to separate them on the basis of 40 specimens collected from around Vancouver Island. Osamu Shimomura notes that this species in general shows great variation: from 1961 to 1988 he collected around 1 million individuals in the waters surrounding the Friday Harbor Laboratories of University of Washington, and in many cases there were pronounced variations in the form of the jellyfish. “

 An interesting account by Claudia Miils about the misidentification of the bioluminescence in Aequorea in various scientific journals and magazines  can be found in : Bioluminescence and other factoids about Aequorea, a hydromedusa See this link for other hydroids:  https://www.racerocks.ca/tag/hydroid/ 

This file is provided as part of a collaborative effort by the students, faculty and staff and volunteers of Lester B. Pearson College
 originally published 2006, updated: 2014 Garry Fletcher

Aurelia aurita: Moon Jellyfish–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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ESMoon-jelly

Moon Jellyfish Aurelia aurita photos by Eric Schauff

ESMoon-jelly2

From the log February 05, 2002
We counted 7 Moon Jellyfish( Aurelia aurita) floating amid the logs and debris in the tide wash east side of the boat dock.Most of them were 15-16 cm wide. In the sea they looked bluish -white and translucent.Unfortunately they were somewhat battered as they washed towards shore and Garry said that they were on their last legs so to speak.
Mike and Carol Slater.

From the log February 05, 2002
There were 19 Moon Jellyfish along the east side of the dock this morning and we saw quite a few more just off shore when we left in the boat.
Mike and Carol Slater.


Scientific classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Semaeostomeae
Family: Ulmaridae
Genus: Aurelia
Species: A. aurita

Aurelia aurita
Linnaeus, 1758

Other Members of the Phylum Cnidaria at Race Rocks.

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams.

 

Ladybugs

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Clear skies. Light variable winds. Low West swell. Glassy this evening.

Tour Boats: 6

Chris brought out a group of visitors affiliated with Blyth Academy/International for a tour of the reserve and tower late this afternoon.

Great Race has a massive population of ladybugs. I first noticed them on my Fall shift, and I still find them all over the place. They are especially fond of hiding on firewood, behind door latches, and in the sedum (stonecrop). I also regularly find them inside my house, sometimes I’ll look down from my book in the evening and see one crawling on my shirt. I have no idea what the species is, or why they are so abundant, but if you know an entomologist who specializes in Ladybugs send them my way.


Continue reading →

Dec 31, visitors, octopus

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overcast, wind light.

Chris came out in the morning with a group of 8 visitors.

Several octopus encounters today: there was an octopus near jetty as the guests were leaving, I heard a fisherman on the radio talking about having caught an octopus, and in the evening I came a across a small octopus in a tide pool at a very low (0.1 meter) tide.

1 ecotour and 1 recreation boat in the reserve today

-tidy engine room and house for visitors
-did a maintenance tour with Chris
-cut, chopped, stacked wood
-checked battery water level
-fuel inventory for month end report
-started preparing month end report

Macoma sp. — The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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rmmollusc

Macoma sp. Photo by Ryan Murphy

 

We are not sure of this classification of this bivalve but just had to use this image that Ryan took at Race Rocks, as it shows association with two other classes of Molluscs,  the chitons and the gastropods.

Here is a possible classification from ITIS Report
Animalia: – animals
Subkingdom:  Bilateria
Infrakingdom:  Protostomia
Superphylum: Lophozoa
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Subclass: Heterodonta
Order: Veneroida
Superfamily: Tellinoidea
Family: Tellinidae
Genus: Macoma (Leach,) 1819
Species: Macoma brota Dall, 1916 – heavy macoma

 

taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams. Dec 2005–Ryan Murphy