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RP Issues of 2010

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2010, April 16.  Philippine Marine Biodiversity - Definitives 

Litho Offset.  Amstar Company, Inc.  Perf. 13.5

Singles, Sheets of 100  (10 x 10)

         

          

       

 

     2p  -  Sea Slug - Singles (900,000)

     5p  -  Sea Hare - Singles (1,000,000)

 

Designer:  Darwin A. Marfil

Graphic Artist:  Jiomer E. Dacaymat

Design Coordinators:  Victorino Z. Serevo;  Elenita D.L. San Diego

Source:  Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific by Dr. Terence Gosliner

 

 

First Day Covers:  Manila

 

The Philippines forms an ocean region that has long been recognized as the world’s center of marine biodiversity. With the Malay archipelago, Papua New Guinea and Australia, the country forms the ‘Coral Triangle,’ so-called because of the abundance of its coral reef life. Some 400-500 species in 90 genera of reef-forming corals are believed to exist in this region. Sulu-Sulawesi Sea, a 900,000-square-kilometer marine eco-region that lies at the apex of the Coral Triangle (70% in the Philippines, 20% Indonesia, 10% Malaysia), is home to some 2,500 species of fish. The Philippine center of diversity was found to have the highest species richness for all distributions combined as well as when shore fish distributions were treated separately.

SEA SLUG.  Name for a marine gastropod mollusk that lacks a shell as an adult and is usually brightly colored. Sea slugs, or nudibranchs, are distributed throughout the world, with the greatest numbers and the largest kinds found in tropical waters. They creep along the bottom or cling to submerged vegetation, usually in water just below the low tide line. Members of a few species swim on the surface in open ocean. Most sea slugs are under 1 in. (2.5 cm) long, although the largest, found in the Great Barrier Reef of  Australia, reaches 12 in. (30 cm). Regarded by many people as the most beautiful of marine animals, sea slugs display a great array of solid colors and patterns. Many have feathery structures (ceratia) on the back, often in a contrasting color. Most sea slugs have two pairs of tentacles on the head, used for tactile and chemosensory reception, with a small eye at the base.  (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/sea_slug.aspx)

2p SEA SLUG (GLOSSODORIS CRUENTA) is a species of very colorful sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Chromodorididae. Its name is derived from the feminine form of the Latin word cruentus, which means "stained with blood" and is a reference to the red spots on its upper dorsum. This species is located in the tropical Western Pacific Ocean (including the Philippines). This species of nudibranch is not common. Glossodoris cruenta has a pale-lemon colored body with a bright yellow and white lined frilly mantle and foot. There are red dots in a circular pattern on its dorsum next to the mantle edge. Both its rhinophores and gills have the same pale-lemon color as its body, although there is some color variation among individuals. It reaches a length of at least 50 mm. (http://www.freebase.com/view/en/glossodoris_cruenta)

5p SEA HARE (CYERCE NIGRICANS) is a species of sacoglossan sea slug, a shell-less marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Caliphyllidae.

 

TOPICAL CATEGORIES

 

  • Marine Biodiversity

  • Marine Life

 

Articles by Dr. Ngo Tiong Tak

 

 

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Issues of 2010