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Jolly Green Giant or "Ceratosoma Sinuata"

Photograph by Jack's Diving Locker's OWSI Sheila Blum

This unusual and very rare to find slug has a scalloped mantle with green, yellow and blue markings. First pictured under this catchy and festive name by Bertsch and Johnson in 1981 (same year Jack's was established!) it has become a kind of 'Holy Grail' of Nudibranch lovers. Found in Hawaiian waters and throughout the Indo-Pacific, this little slug has quite the enthusiatic following because of its beauty and rairty.

 

Where did the name come from?

Dr. Berstch said, "Since common names are essentially meaningless in many ways (conveying no real scientific information) the name Jolly Green Giant was a joke. Our specimen was less than 20 mm long. A vegetable company had for some years been advertising its products with a huge green fellow in a leafy toga (arms crossed, legs spread across a fertile valley), saying, 'Ho, ho, ho! Welcome to the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant.'

One of their ad copies said, 'Welcome to the Valley, where goodness grows and great tasting vegetables are picked at the peak of perfection.'

So, using two contradictory characters: green color, but extremely small size (!) we decided to nickname Ceratosoma sinuata "the Jolly Green Giant. Since common names are essentially meaningless in many ways (conveying no real scientific information) the name Jolly Green Giant was a joke. Our specimen was less than 20 mm long. we decided to nickname Ceratosoma sinuata "the Jolly Green Giant."

One thing is for sure, this little fella is bound to make you jolly if you're lucky enough to spot one!