Michael Bok's Homepage

Squilla empusa

A mantis shrimp found all along the US east coast. This individual came from the Chesapeake Bay. They are different than many mantis shrimp that I study in that they only have two midband rows and apparently only one photoreceptor type.

Googly-eyes

Ondontodactylus latirostris from Lizard Island, Australia.

Mantis shrimp egg

Pullosquilla ege containing an embryo. The larval compound eye is clearly see developing on top of the yoke.

Mantis shrimp larva

Lysiosquillina maculata larva from Lizard Island

Adult Bottletail Squid (Sepiadarium kochii)

Looks like a baby octopus, about the size of the last digit of your pinky, but is actually an fully grown bottletail squid that we caught at Lizard Island

Brilliant red flatworm

A beautiful polyclad flatworm from Lizard Island, Australia. Perhaps Pseudoceros.

Split-Crown feather duster

A split crown feather duster worm (Anamobaea) from Belize

Syllid Strangeness

Syllid woms bud copies of themselves off of their rears. Here are three syllid worms in the making at the back of the progenetor

Radiant Flatworm

Pseudobiceros bedfordi from Lizard Island, Australia

Odontodactylus cultrifer

Juvenile female and male O. cultrifer mantis shrimp from Lizard Island, AU

A Happy Nudi

Ardeadoris egretta

Juvenile Zebra Lionfish (Dendrochirus zebra)

Captured at Lizard Island, Australia

Bispira

Fan worm (Bispira sp.) from Belize. You can see tiny, paired compound eyes on the backs of the feeding tentacles.

Shrimp Tail 2

The telson and uropods of O. scyllarus.

Odontodactylus latirostris eye

A very close up view of the eye of O. latirostris from Lizard Island, Australia. This photo nicely shows the three pseudopupils, formed by the dorsal periphery, ventral periphery and the midband. In this photo, the mantis shrimp is looking at the camera with its 'acute zone', a region of the compound eye with increased spatial resolution.

Hemisquilla californiensis

A large beautiful mantis shrimp from Catalina, California.

Christmas tree worm close up

A nice view of the twin branchial spires, used for feeding and respiration, in Spirobranchus.

Nudibranch from Lizard Island

Damselfly

Argia apicalis (Zygoptera) chowing down on some unfortunate insect.

Ice Cream Cone Worm

Pectinaria carnosus (Wong and Hutchings, 2015), in and out of its tube, From Lizard Island, Australia.

Macrophiothrix nereidina

Beautiful ophiothricid brittle star from Lizard Island, Australia