Photo courtesy of Gary MacDonald

Cuthona rolleri Behrens and Gosliner, 1988

When Terry and I described this unique tergipedid nudibranch we thought it only fitting to name it after Dick Roller, who had spent so many hours mucking around Morro Bay, the type locality for the species, in search of other branch species. This species while clearly belonging to the genus Cuthona, is distinctive in its external morphology, having the oral tentacles joined to form a wide shovel-like frontal veil, and having the cerata widely separated dorsally and set on prominent arches. Its color is white, the ceratal core being salmon pink.

Individual specimens are about 15 mm in length and dorsally flattened, making them well suited for the behavior we observed upon collection, of crawling over the wet mudflat surface at low tide. The flat oral veil may also have a strategic function here, also. Nothing is known of its prey preferences, but the species is found in areas abundant with mudflat worm colonies, and the tubes of the inn keeper worm, Urechis caupo and the mud shrimp, Callianassa and Upogebia.

Observed and collected only a few times to date, this species range is known to be restricted to central California.

This remarkable little legacy we leave to Dick, who sadly passed away in June.

I of course remember Richard Roller because of his contributions to Branching, that's why Terry and I named Cuthona rolleri after him. But I also remember him because of his generosity and the unique interest he and I shared with the study and collection of antique fruit and canning jars.

Dick and I never met face to face, never shook hands, but we communicated regularily whether concerning Branchs or jars. Coincidentally as I found myself relocating to San Luis Obispo, where Dick taught school, he moved to Paris, Illinois to open his Fruit Jar business. My interest in Fruit Jars was fueled by my dad who enjoyed excavating old bottles from 19th Century ruins and digs. I came across a huge collection while working as a curatorial assistant at Cal Academy. Dick's catalogue became my reference book and later after several moves, I shipped those bottles I still lugged around, off to Dick.

Dick never lost his interest in Branchs, writing often to request recent reprints. Most recently Dick gave me, not only all his copies of reprints making nomenclatural changes to McFarland's Memiors (to give away with copies of the Memiors sold to Sea Challenger customers), but he included his files containing "original" McFarland notes, drawings and sketches. It is this unsolicited generosity that I will always remember. I'll miss you Dick.

Thoughts in honor of Richard Roller This morning Mike Miller sent me a fax message regarding the recent passing of Richard A. Roller. I immediately searched my slide collection, remembering that I had a photograph of Dick from long ago. Sure enough, on 15 March 1969, he, Steve Long, myself and shell collectors from the Conchological Club of Southern California went on a boat trip to Fraser Point, Santa Cruz Island. Some of us snorkeled, and a few were scuba diving. We found 24 species of opisthobranchs, including 13 species previously unreported from that island (Long, 1969). I don't really remember too much about that trip, except it has stayed symbolic for me of the curiosity and kindness of a high school science teacher who eventually moved on to fruit jars and Paris, Illinois! With the sad news of Dick's death, I spent some memory moments about his contributions to opisthbranch studies. In 1966, California Academy of Sciences posthumously published MacFarland's major tome, "Studies of opisthobranchiate mollusks of the Pacific coast of North America." At the time of its publication, it was known that the volume included various synonyms and generic misplacements. With the encouragement of both Dusty Chivers and Allyn G. Smith (of the CAS Invertebrate Zoology department), Dick Roller (1969 and 1970) published two articles in The Veliger with nomenclatural changes for MacFarland's work. I rummaged through my reprint filing cabinet, and found the first issue of Opisthobranch Newsletter, published 1 July 1969, with the staple holes and fold marks from its mailing. Steve Long and Dick Roller were the co-editors, alternating priority of name placement each issue (until Vol. II, no. 8, when Steve Long became the sole editor). I was even mentioned on page 2: "Mr. Hans Bertsch, of Berkeley, California, will be at the Immaculate Heart College, Las Cruces Biological Station, Las Cruces, Baja California, Mexico, for several weeks, starting June 25th." I collected several unnamed species on that research trip, watched the first moon walk on a Mexican TV station, and read the Steinbeck & Ricketts marvelous homage to science, "The Sea of Cortez." Dick played a key role in some of my scientific discoveries from that trip, dissecting for me one of the first radulae from an eolid that I later named Phidiana lascrucensis. That 2-page first issue also announced that copies of R. Bergh's "Die Opisthobranchiata der Siboga-Expedition" were available for approximately $8.27 including postage. Many years ago I wrote in the margin of that issue, "Sent for August 29."

The original subscription rate was $.50 for the 6 numbers of volume I. It was printed with a ditto machine--remember those typed purple monsters that every school used? Their technology barreled forward with a xeroxed edition, then a change to the mimeo process with the first number of vol. II. So today, this remembrance of Dick is being sent out on the Internet, and access to information about his slugs is being disseminated to more people and faster than ever before. In my 1980 forward to Dave Behrens' "Pacific Coast Nudibranchs," I wrote about the 1960-1980 period of American Pacific coast nudibranch research: "A large group of associates in central and southern California have studied the taxonomy, evolution, ecology, reproduction, and zoogeography of opisthobranchs; they include Richard Roller, Terrence Gosliner, Michael Ghiselin, Robert Beeman, Gary McDonald, Gordon Robilliard, Gary Williams, Steve Long, Gale Sphon, James Nybakken, and David Mulliner." Over the years, Dick surely enjoyed hearing about the growing popularity of nudibranchs; the goals of his original "Opisthobranch Newsletter" are being continued on a worldwide basis.

The original subscription rate was $.50 for the 6 numbers of volume I. It was printed with a ditto machine--remember those typed purple monsters that every school used? Their technology barreled forward with a xeroxed edition, then a change to the mimeo process with the first number of vol. II. So today, this remembrance of Dick is being sent out on the Internet, and access to information about his slugs is being disseminated to more people and faster than ever before. In my 1980 forward to Dave Behrens' "Pacific Coast Nudibranchs," I wrote about the 1960-1980 period of American Pacific coast nudibranch research: "A large group of associates in central and southern California have studied the taxonomy, evolution, ecology, reproduction, and zoogeography of opisthobranchs; they include Richard Roller, Terrence Gosliner, Michael Ghiselin, Robert Beeman, Gary McDonald, Gordon Robilliard, Gary Williams, Steve Long, Gale Sphon, James Nybakken, and David Mulliner." Over the years, Dick surely enjoyed hearing about the growing popularity of nudibranchs; the goals of his original "Opisthobranch Newsletter" are being continued on a worldwide basis. There is a short note at the end of the February 1970 ON, which today is most poignant: "Mr. Terry Gosliner and Mr. Gary Williams made a trip to the Gulf of California over the Christmas holidays and came back with several interesting animals from San Carlos Bay. They stopped at Steve Long's home along with Messrs. Roller, Bertsch, Katzman, and McDonald, for several hours of talk and slide showing." Thank you, Dick, for many hours of encouragement, discussions, and discoveries. In many ways we are still together at home (yours, Steve's, Terry's, mine, or anywhere there is an ocean or lover of the sea's beautiful creatures), looking and sharing. Such moments of friendship endure nomenclatural changes, and the many passings of time.

IN MEMORIAM Richard A. Roller passed away the morning of June 11, 1998. I find it hard to believe even though I know he had not been healthy for some time. I met Dick in San Luis Obispo County, California around the beginning of 1968 and we co-founded the Opisthobranch Newsletter in June of 1969. Dick and I (and often, Gary McDonald) collected around San Luis Obispo County, California, on many trips. He started me collecting information and basically taught me everything about indexing and retrieval of the literature. I remember a huge amount of time spent in his tiny office at home -- can't imagine how his wife, Jennie, put up with us. Every piece of literature we collected had to be duplicated so that we each had a copy -- and most of it was cut to size and punched to fit in blue 3-ring binders (I know there are still a couple of hundred of those floating around). One memory is Dick returning from a quick trip to the Cal Academy (300 miles to San Francisco) with six boxes of MacFarland's notes. I believe it was Allyn Smith who called and said they were available. Most of that material is also still around and available. Another memory I have is when I turned up at his door in full wetsuit and mask to go tidepooling in the pouring rain.

Richard A. Roller, born Dec. 9th 1930 in Baltimore MD. Attended Cal. Poly in San Luis Obispo California. Did most of his nudibranch work in Morro Bay, California. Moved to Paris, Illinois in 1973. Died suddenly on June 11th 1998. Dick is survived by his wife, Jennie A. Roller, a son and two daughters.

Dick Roller had a consumate zest for the finer things in life. He was happiest when he could share those things with others around him who had the same passions. One of my earliest memories of Dick dates back to an early Western Society of Malacologists meeting at Stanford. During the mandatory informal nudibranch slide show, Larry Harris was showing photos of Indo-Pacific opisthobranchs. It was my first exposure to the exotic vivid colors that dominate the reefs of the Indian and Pacific oceans. As Larry showed each additional slide, Dick groaned with ecstasy at how beautiful each one was. Pretty soon, Dick was rolling on the floor. Gary Williams leaned over to me and said "now I know why they call him Roller". Dick loved the beauty of nudibranchs and was one of the first to tell me as a young student, that if you want to be serious about studying them you need to dissect their reproductive organs. He taught himself to dissect his beloved aeolids when he described Babakina festiva, Emarcusia morroensis and Eubranchus sanjuanensis.

Dick understood the importance of having good literature and notes to back up one's observations. One of his greatest contributions was the rescue of Frank Mace MacFarland's research notes. Following the completion of the manuscript of the 1966 Memoir, published by the California Academy of Sciences, MacFarland's notes were going to be discarded. Dick realized the importance of the notes as a historical record and salvaged them from being tossed into a dumpster. He also made sure that they were safely returned to the Academy, where they are currently part of the institution's archives. It was only because Dick saved these notes that we know that MacFarland had collected Runcina macfarlandi 80 years before Cynthia Trowbridge found specimens in Oregon which became the type material for this species. We also know he collected Hallaxa chani forty years before Gary Williams and I first found it in Bolinas.

When Dick moved to Paris, Illinois in 1973, he became land-locked, but certainly did not give up his interest in opisthobranchs. He always kept in touch and we had a great visit when he and Jennie where in Washington, D.C. when I was a post-doc at the Smithsonian. Once I found myself driving across the middle of the U.S. alone and saw a freeway exit sign that read: Paris, next exit. I pulled off the road, stopped at the nearest pay phone and called Dick. It was after nine at night and he and Jennie insisted that I come to their house and spend the night. Dick was always like that. He was a great human being and I will certainly miss him.

IN MEMORIAM I first met Dick Roller in 1967. I was a sophomore at Cal Poly, and after reading Between Pacific Tides, and discovering the tidepools and their wealth of marine life (especially nudibranchs) I changed majors from Mechanical Engineering to Biology. I was absolutely fascinated by the dazzling colors and wide variety of nudibranchs that I could find in the local tidepools. In those days nudibranch identification guides with color photos didn’t yet exist, and identifying my finds was very frustrating for a novice marine biologist who knew little about the scientific literature. Professor Dave Montgomery was very aware of my enthusiasm for nudibranchs and told me there was a graduate student at Cal Poly who was interested in nudibranchs and would like to meet me. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to meet someone else who was interested in nudibranchs, and could help me identify the species I had seen. Dick and I met in his grad student office (a small prep lab between two biology teaching labs) and immediately realized that we were kindred spirits, sharing interests in the same aspects of nudibranchs. Shortly thereafter we were often collecting in the intertidal whenever a low tide permitted; or if we wanted to go collecting and there was no low tide, we would go to the boat docks at Morro Bay.

I remember Dick’s enthusiasm when I returned from a dive at Shell Beach and called to tell him I had finally found Chromodoris macfarlandi, a strikingly beautiful species which we had been hoping for years to find in San Luis Obispo County. I took the specimens to his house and he took notes and measurements and photographed all three specimens. The one slide I have that he took of those specimens shows the incredible bright purple better than any photo I have seen since. Dick started photographing nudibranchs when photomacrography was almost an arcane art. In those days marco lenses were not well known to most people and TTL flash was unheard of, so photographing nudibranchs was often a laborious and frustrating experience. He tried several systems before he found a system that would give him results which would meet his standards. It was Dick who showed me the ropes of photographing nudibranchs.

When returning from a collecting trip to Spooner’s Cove and stopping at Dick’s to show him my meager finds (5 Precuthona divae and 1 Cadlina luteomarginata). Dick’s sharp eye immediately noticed something odd about the Cadlina, it was Acanthodoris hudsoni, a species which neither of us had seen before. Again, it was Dick who showed me that you must look at each specimen carefully. In 1971 I collected several very small specimens of Hermissenda crassicornis from the boat docks at Morro Bay. Once again, Dick’s keen eye immediately noticed that they weredifferent. He said," I’m not sure what they are, but they’re not Hermissenda". He later named them Emarcusia morroensis. If it weren’t for Dick’s keen eye and knowledge, this species may have gone un-noticed and undescribed for many more years.

In his collection records for 16 August, 1970 at Morro Bay mudflats are listed two specimens of Aeolid A, a species that intrigued Dick because of its rarity and because it was found on the mud, an unusual place for aeolids; this was the first collection of what would later appropriately be named Cuthona rolleri.

It was Dick who took me to my first scientific meeting (WSM at Stanford University), where I first met many of the ‘branchers: Gale Sphon, Larry Harris, Terry Gosliner, Gary Williams, & Hans Bertsch; as well as others who were interested in ‘branchs (e.g. William Emerson & Jim McLean).

It was Dick who encouraged me to obtain the scientific literature. He introduced me to requesting reprints from authors (What?, you can get them for free? I was amazed). He told me about interlibrary loan (which was a new thing to me), which I immediately starting using to obtain copies of papers for Dick and me. Dick also allowed me to photocopy major portions of his extensive library, which saved me many hours of work in the library.

Dick’s family (Jennie, Debra, Cathy, & Carl), was always his first priority. In his last email to me he said," We hardly knew what wonderful meant until our 2 grandchildren came along (Melanie - 9, Logan - 6). Now we are expecting another (a little girl) about May 1st."

Dick will be missed not only by his family but by the many ‘branchers who were enriched by having known and worked with him.

Although I never met Dick Roller, his enthusiasm for branching never waned during his time in Illinois as evidenced by correspondence received during the formative days of the Slug Site. Dick was always there to applaud the work of contributors to the Site. Quite frequently, I would get email from folks contributing pictures to the Site asking " who is this guy, Dick Roller?", after receiving laudatory e-mail from Dick! I want to thank all of the people who made this tribute possible. In the weeks to follow, Dick's contributions to branching will be featured in additional Branch of the Week selections.

© The Slug Site, Michael D. Miller 1998. All Rights Reserved.

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