Hippocampus bargibanti

Spent a few hours today painting this pygmy seahorse- it may prove to be a work very much in progress, but I'm happy with it for the moment.

These seahorses live exclusively on gorgonian coral, which they mimic so well that they are virtually invisible* even to eyes actively searching for them (of course, it doesn't help that they grow to 2.5 cm at the most).** They were discovered by accident in 1969, when one hitched a ride with a coral specimen taken for study. If you want to take a break from the usual baby sloths, owls, and/or cats doing cute things, would highly recommend looking up videos of bargibantis bopping each other.

*Other things that are virtually invisible: the fins on the sides of the head and along the spine. I've made them all much more visible than they were in any of the photos that I used for reference, but didn't want to make them too conspicuous.

** Life size.
 

Actual pictures of bargibantis: http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/bargibanti/Interesting

Pygmy seahorse bopping one another: http://www.arkive.org/pygmy-seahorse/hippocampus-bargibanti/video-00.html