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Friday, March 28, 2014

Jagged blue

Just a few quick pictures of a chiton found in a kelp holdfast a couple of weeks ago.  It was ~14 mm long.



The jagged blue lines against the bright orange background of the plates were striking:



I'm still working on the identification of this chiton.  It's probably a species of Mopalia.  For this group, the number and arrangement of bristles on the setae (or hairs) along the edge of the chiton are important:


I hope to enlist the assistance of a Mopalia expert and will report back if we can confirm which species this is.

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