Shawn Miller, Japan
Info
Japan's South Seas dream are the Ryūkyū Islands in the East China Sea (Pacific Ocean) southwest of Japan.
The Okinawa Islands are a group of islands belonging to Japan, they are geographically a part of the Ryūkyū Islands and politically a part of Okinawa Prefecture.
The largest island in the group is the main island of Okinawa, Okinawa Hontō.
Although many readers may not be aware of it, the majority of species determinations are based on preserved material and much less frequently in the wild.
In a recent study on Idiosepius Steenstrup, 1881, an undescribed species from Okinawa, Japan, was described based on morphological and morphological and molecular characters (Reid and Strugnell, 2018).
This species has been studied from two male and a single female specimen held in the Australian Museum collections.
The focus of Reid and Strugnell (2018) was on the Australian representative of the family, and as only two extant specimens were available for study, not
the species was not formally described and was referred to as 'Okinawa' n. sp. (Reid and Strugnell 2018: 472).
This species, previously listed only as Okinawa' n. sp, has now been identified from several specimens and is now Kodama jujutsu A. Reid, N. Sato, Jolly & Strugnell, 2023.
A little later, another dwarf sepia was discovered in the same sea area, which did not seem to fit in with the other known idiosepiids and was named Idiosepius kijimuna A. Reid, N. Sato, Jolly & Strugnell, 2023.
It is to the great credit of Shawn Miller, a very well known underwater naturalist and photographer, who was not only able to take super great macro photos of Kodama jujutsu, but also captured a typical, possibly defensive posture, (see Fig. 10a, c-h of the first description) in which the animal spreads the arms and sometimes the tentacles in a circle around the mouth, with the distal tips of these appendages bent inwards. Sometimes the arms are dorsal over the head , this may be associated with contraction of the mantle behind the fins.
Underwater photographer Brandon Ryan Hannan noticed further behavioral peculiarities of the second described squid at the Sunabe Sea Wall dive site in Okinawa in 2019:
Idiosepius kijimuna had been observed repeatedly on the undersides of various hydrozoans, and was not deterred by the nematocysts (stinging cells).
Brandon Ryan Hannan observed how the nudibranch Bornella anguilla S. Johnson, 1984 approached the hydrozoan and pulled the hydrozoan branches into its mouth to strip off the polyps.
When the nudibranch reached the end of the hydrozoo, it did not touch the octopus and the octopus did not move.
Kodama jujutsu likes to follow shrimp at night, attracted by dive cameras or flashlights, and has also been found in shallow seagrass beds.
When the dwarf squid was observed feeding, the prey was always small shrimp with bodies smaller or similar in size to the squid itself.
Males of Kodama jujutsu are smaller than females!
Etymology of the genus name:
The genus name "Kodama" refers to a tree spirit in Japanese folklore. It has the reputation of having a round shape.
The presence of Kodama is a sign of a healthy forest. This name was chosen to indicate that Kodama jujutsu also stands for and requires a healthy reef.
Etymology of the species name:
The species epithet "jujutsu" is derived from the Japanese word "jūjutsu", which is a martial art of the same name and translates as "gentle art". The aim of this sport is to control the opponent by grabbing him. This dwarf squid has similarly grabbed and overpowered crabs.
Our very special thanks to underwater naturalist and photographer, Shawn Miller, for providing us with a photo of this cute little dwarf squid.
We humans should do everything we can to put a rapid end to the destruction of the environment and pollution of the oceans so that we can get to know and admire more amazing marine life in the future, because "all life comes from the sea", let's protect it!
The Okinawa Islands are a group of islands belonging to Japan, they are geographically a part of the Ryūkyū Islands and politically a part of Okinawa Prefecture.
The largest island in the group is the main island of Okinawa, Okinawa Hontō.
Although many readers may not be aware of it, the majority of species determinations are based on preserved material and much less frequently in the wild.
In a recent study on Idiosepius Steenstrup, 1881, an undescribed species from Okinawa, Japan, was described based on morphological and morphological and molecular characters (Reid and Strugnell, 2018).
This species has been studied from two male and a single female specimen held in the Australian Museum collections.
The focus of Reid and Strugnell (2018) was on the Australian representative of the family, and as only two extant specimens were available for study, not
the species was not formally described and was referred to as 'Okinawa' n. sp. (Reid and Strugnell 2018: 472).
This species, previously listed only as Okinawa' n. sp, has now been identified from several specimens and is now Kodama jujutsu A. Reid, N. Sato, Jolly & Strugnell, 2023.
A little later, another dwarf sepia was discovered in the same sea area, which did not seem to fit in with the other known idiosepiids and was named Idiosepius kijimuna A. Reid, N. Sato, Jolly & Strugnell, 2023.
It is to the great credit of Shawn Miller, a very well known underwater naturalist and photographer, who was not only able to take super great macro photos of Kodama jujutsu, but also captured a typical, possibly defensive posture, (see Fig. 10a, c-h of the first description) in which the animal spreads the arms and sometimes the tentacles in a circle around the mouth, with the distal tips of these appendages bent inwards. Sometimes the arms are dorsal over the head , this may be associated with contraction of the mantle behind the fins.
Underwater photographer Brandon Ryan Hannan noticed further behavioral peculiarities of the second described squid at the Sunabe Sea Wall dive site in Okinawa in 2019:
Idiosepius kijimuna had been observed repeatedly on the undersides of various hydrozoans, and was not deterred by the nematocysts (stinging cells).
Brandon Ryan Hannan observed how the nudibranch Bornella anguilla S. Johnson, 1984 approached the hydrozoan and pulled the hydrozoan branches into its mouth to strip off the polyps.
When the nudibranch reached the end of the hydrozoo, it did not touch the octopus and the octopus did not move.
Kodama jujutsu likes to follow shrimp at night, attracted by dive cameras or flashlights, and has also been found in shallow seagrass beds.
When the dwarf squid was observed feeding, the prey was always small shrimp with bodies smaller or similar in size to the squid itself.
Males of Kodama jujutsu are smaller than females!
Etymology of the genus name:
The genus name "Kodama" refers to a tree spirit in Japanese folklore. It has the reputation of having a round shape.
The presence of Kodama is a sign of a healthy forest. This name was chosen to indicate that Kodama jujutsu also stands for and requires a healthy reef.
Etymology of the species name:
The species epithet "jujutsu" is derived from the Japanese word "jūjutsu", which is a martial art of the same name and translates as "gentle art". The aim of this sport is to control the opponent by grabbing him. This dwarf squid has similarly grabbed and overpowered crabs.
Our very special thanks to underwater naturalist and photographer, Shawn Miller, for providing us with a photo of this cute little dwarf squid.
We humans should do everything we can to put a rapid end to the destruction of the environment and pollution of the oceans so that we can get to know and admire more amazing marine life in the future, because "all life comes from the sea", let's protect it!
