Good evening! I hope everyone is well. This is my first one of these diaries in a while. If you aren't familiar they are generally meant just to provide some entertainment and distraction from the troubles of the day. I hope you enjoy your visit.
Spearfisherman, West Oahu
Contrary to what it may say elsewhere on this page all images are copyrighted by the author of this diary.
Gold Dust Day GeckoI am stoked that a pair of these beauties have taken up residence on my lanai. They are much prettier than our more common house geckos.
Scrawled Filefish Rock-Boring Urchin Tiger Cowry (Cypraea tigris) Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) Ok, now to the thing you were looking for you sick people. We came across these two octopuses in a rock pile separated by about three or four feet. This is the female. Isn't she pretty? This is the male. Handsome fellow. He stayed this dark reddish brown during the whole event, occasionally flashing white spots.
Bedroom EyesShe stayed this much lighter color pattern.
"Hey baby, nice legs"
She came farther out of her hole and raised her skirt.
Encouraged he reaches out to her with his hectocotylus, an arm specially adapted for mating. Making the stretch. With the hectocotylus he reaches into her mantle cavity. Not exactly intimate he reached her from a distance.
The male deposts sperm packets or spermatophores into her mantle cavity. She can keep the sperm alive for weeks until her eggs are mature and ready to be fertilized.
This tiny critter is a sea spider, a marine arthropod not closely related to actual spiders.
Jeweled Anenome Crab Marbled Shrimp Commerson's FrogfishYou can see its "lure", the first dorsal spine with a piece of flesh on the end that the frogfish waggles in front of its mouth to attract prey.
Frogfish Eye Daze End, West Oahu