May, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 1 
and concealment as their weapons of choice in 
the battle not-to-get-eaten. Octopus, who must 
go out ‘shopping’ for prey themselves, must 
contend with the subsequent predator exposure. 
Hanlon et al (1999) provide a discussion and 
fascinating video/still camera documentation of 
behaviors adopted by foraging coral reef 
octopuses in the Indo-Pacific. All the tricks of 
quick change and deception practiced by these 
soft-bodied predators are on display in this 
paper. 
“It all depends on how you look at it” can be 
paraphrased without alteration of meaning to 
“it all depends on what data you use”. Price et 
al (1999) examine the effect of scale on 
perception and analysis of asteroid diversity in 
the Atlantic. 
On a small scale Deheyn & Jangoux (1999) 
have detected a sibling species hiding amidst 
the variability of color and bioluminosity in 
Amphipholis squamata. The authors 
determined that the differences were fully 
heritable, and represented different genotypes. 
The authors, while demonstrating the presence 
of the second form, did not provide it with a 
name, or associate it with an existing name 
within the synonymy of A. squamata. 
A different take on the variability in color and 
bioluminescence was provided by Deheyn et al 
(1998) who investigated the effect of 
symbionts on the color and luminosity of A. 
squamata. They did find an effect exerted by 
nearly all symbionts on the intensity/and or 
kinetics of light production in A. squamata, but 
found that the effects were expressed 
independent of the color of the ophiuroid (and 
thus in Tight’ of the preceding article) 
regardless of which sibling species was being 
examined. 
3 MAY MINUTES 
The meeting was held at the Los Angeles 
County Museum of Natural History Worm Lab 
and was called to order by President Ron 
Velarde. He relayed a message from Don 
Cadien that very few ballots for the SCAMIT 
election had been turned in so far. Don will 
accept ballots until mid May, so please, if you 
haven’t voted yet, now is the time to do so. A 
ballot is available on the SCAMIT website. 
The SCAMIT website has undergone some 
updates and changes recently. Please take a 
look if you haven’t visited recently, and give 
your feedback to our webmaster Jay Shrake. 
Due to an initial interest from Cheryl Brantley 
and Ron Velarde regarding the taxonomy of 
Aphrodita, Larry Lovell is setting aside 
specimens within this genus while going 
through the collections at his new job at 
Scripps. If anyone has additional material, it 
would be very welcome, and it can be sent or 
given to Larry. They plan on re-examining this 
group in the future. 
By the way, congratulations to Larry Lovell on 
his new position at Scripps Institution of 
Oceanography. As of March 1, Larry is the 
Museum Scientist in charge of the Benthic 
Invertebrates Collection at SIO. He can be 
reached via phone or e-mail: 
Lawrence L. Lovell 
Museum Scientist 
Benthic Invertebrates Collection 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography 
9500 Gilman Drive 
La Jolla, CA. 92093-0206 
(619) 822-2818 
llovell@sio.ucsd.edu 
It has been quite awhile since the last 
polychaete meeting (January), so attendees 
brought numerous specimens from their Bight 
98 samples to examine. A brief discussion 
about paraonids encountered in the Bight 
samples ensued. A general clarification was 
made that paraonid specimens previously 
identified as Acmira nr similis, then Acmira sp 
C, will now be identified as A. lopezi. 
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