Gold Lace, Halgerda terramtuentis

Well, this is a fun one — definitely striking and deserving of its wonderful names.  Gold lace obviously relates to its delicate, transparent body etched in gold. Earthwatch? That name ties into the taxonomic name, Halgerda terramtuentis, which means “looking at the earth with care” in honour of the Earthwatch Institute’s volunteers who helped  chief scientists Bertsch & Johnson with the initial research on these dorids in early 1982.   This is confirmed on Pittman & Fiene’s site, Sea Slugs of Hawaii. All individuals documented here were under 2 inches or 5 cm. We have found it floating in the water column, tucked into crevices, and out in the middle of the sand at depths from 5 ft to 25 ft (less than 8 metres). Endemic to Hawaii.