photo by Steven Johnston

1/26/2004: Alien invaders? Not quite, though this pelagic species is not really at home in the slough. Our Education Coordinator Kenton Parker collected a specimen of "Sea Butterfly" (Corolla calceola) at the footbridge, where he often trolls for plankton. He later found several more individuals on the beach at Pajaro Dunes. Steven Johnson, Senior Interpreter at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, sent us this photo and informs us that these critters maintain their shape with a gelatinous interior "pseudoconch," that their "wingspan" is about 8 centimeters (3 inches), and that an individual can form a mucous sheet (which may be used to trap planktonic prey) up to two meters in diameter.