Diving the Kona Coast: mating

Showing posts with label mating. Show all posts

Monday, March 4, 2013

Echinoderm Love

So there I was swimming along and minding my own business when I noticed what appeared to be a sea urchin, perched high on a coral head, that appeared to be smoking. Billows of white smoke rose from among its many spines. But, alas, the only fire was in the little creature's libido as this was the awesome act of echinoderm lovemaking!

The lusty devil was a collector urchin (Tripneustes gratilla) and the "smoke " was a milky fluid containing either eggs or sperm that it was broadcasting into the water in hopes that it would meet up with the genetic material of another collector urchin and produce a new crop of prickly little invertebrates!

The yellowish thing atop the urchin is a piece of marine detritus that it "collected" during its travels. Anyway, interesting to note that, unlike humans, sea urchins smoke during sex and not after! Ha!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Octopus Love on St. Patrick's Day

This Saint Patrick's Day I arrived bright and early (well, just early) at Two Step for a little diving. The water is still spectacularly cold at around 73 deg. F. The conditions, otherwise, were pretty good. Toward the end of my first dive, I happened upon a large, handsome octopus and settled in to get some shots.

Like most octopi, this one displayed a combination of shyness and curiosity. Sometimes hunkering down in the coral to hide and other times "standing up" on the reef to get a good look at me.

I followed the creature as it jetted from one coral head to another and morphed through a range of colors and textures.

After several minutes of this, He settled on a patch of coral and assumed an upright posture. To my surprise a smaller octo rose up a short distance beyond him. For a short time they remained stationary, just pulsating on top of the coral. Then, slowly, they oozed toward each other, tentacles reaching out. I was able to get a photo just as the male extended his hectocotylus arm under the female's mantle to inseminate her.

And then, just like that, it was over, each octopus jetting off in different directions. A brief flurry of 16 arms hopefully resulting in a new generation of cephalopods. Happy St. Patrick's Day, young lovers!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Convex Crabs in Love

Recently, I was swimming through a lava tube when I saw a Convex Crab (Carpillus convexus) hiding under a small ledge. It was partially obscured by a rock, but the crab remained still which is uncharacteristic of the type. After taking a few photos, I decided to move the rock since the animal was being so agreeable. It was then I saw that it was perched upon another Convex Crab that was flipped on its back.

For all my years of diving, I had never given much thought to how crabs go about making little baby crabs so I wasn't certain of what I was looking at. Other than mating, I thought it could be a territorial dispute or maybe even slow-motion cannibalism. After getting back to my computer, I confirmed my original opinion that this was, indeed, sweet crustacean love-making.

The process looks pretty clumsy for two participants who are fairly graceless to begin with, but it obviously works out well as crabs are not in short supply!