Marine Life – Montserrat 2010

On February 12, 2010, Montserrat Post has issued the marine life stamp series that features the Basket stars, Sea Anemone, Spiny Lobsters, and Spotted Drum. Each of issue stamps have different nominal value,  $ 1.10, $ 2.25, $ 2.50, $2.75 and $ 5.0.

Basket Star – $ 1.10

 

The Basket  stars  are  a group of brittle stars and has characteristic many-branched arms. Their habitat  are deep sea with the life span  is up to 35 years in the wild. They weigh around  5 kg. Like other echinoderms, basket stars lack blood and achieve gas exchange via their water vascular system.The basket stars are the largest ophiuroids with Gorgonocephalus stimpsoni measuring up to 70 cm in arm length with a disk diameter of 14 cm.

 

Spiny Lobster - $2.25

Spiny lobsters are found in almost all warm seas, including the Caribbean and the Mediterranean Sea.Spiny lobsters tend to live in crevices of rocks and coral reefs, only occasionally venturing out at night to seek snails, clams, crabs, sea urchins or carrion to eat. Sometimes, they migrate in very large groups in long files of lobsters across the sea floor.Spiny lobsters navigate by using the smell and taste of natural substances in the water that change in different parts of the ocean. It was recently discovered that spiny lobsters can also navigate by detecting the Earth's magnetic field.They keep together by contact, using their long antennae.

Spotted Drum – $ 2.50

The Spotted Drum is a small fish, typically between 6 and 9 inches, that can occasionally be found on coral reefs in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Bahamas.A nocturnal feeder, it leaves the protection of its daily shelter at night to feed.It can be found at depth between 3 and 30 meters.It swims in repetitive patterns.

 

Sea Anemone – $ 2.75

Sea anemone is a polyp attached at the bottom to the surface beneath it by an adhesive foot, called a basal disc, with a column shaped body ending in an oral disc.They can have anywhere from a few tens to a few hundred tentacles.The mouth is in the middle of the oral disc surrounded by tentacles armed with many cnidocytes, which are cells that function as a defence and as a means to capture prey.

Sea Anemones tend to stay in the same spot until conditions become unsuitable (prolonged dryness, for example), or a predator attacks them. In that case anemones can release themselves from the substrate and use flexing motions to swim to a new location.

Sea Anemones can also reproduce asexually, by budding, binary fission (the polyp separates into two halves), and pedal laceration, in which small pieces of the pedal disc break off and regenerate into small anemones.

Batwing Coral Crab or Carpilius corallinus

Batwing Coral Crab is one of the most beautiful crabs,  occurs on coral reefs and rocky rubble in the shallow waters of all over Caribbean  with depth ranges from 1 m  to 15 m . It is a nocturnal crab.  The carapace is smooth and heavy, with no teeth, except for a blunt one at the lower right- and left hand corner. The ground color is pale to brick red with scarlet spots and meandering lines of small white or yellow spots.The ends of the fingers and claws are darker. (Adopted from the Marine Species – Identification Portal)