hurdy girly :)

I enjoy sea slugs on principle (because Good) but i don't know anything about them, what are some of your favourite sea slug facts? :D

HI HELLO I LOVE THIS QUESTION

Sorry for the late reply!! I was writing a very in depth reply to this right after you sent it but tumblr deleted it randomly and I lost my steam so I’m gonna try again lol

The main thing about sea slugs that got me really interested is called Kleptoplasty. The main slug that is talked about in regard to this is Costasiella kuroshimae, more commonly known as the leaf sheep. However, many other species in their clade (called sacoglossa) also utilize it. Kleptoplasty is a process where an organism consumes a plant and then siphons out the chloroplasts from its cells. They store the chloroplasts in themselves and use them to generate energy. The only other animals to evolve this practice are two kinds of marine flatworms, but I’m not very familiar with them. As far as I know sea slugs outside of sacoglossa don’t use Kleptoplasty, though there is another kind (Pteraeolidia ianthina) that farms microscopic plants in itself to get the energy.

Another sea slug practice that got me interested early on is cnidocytes siphoning. Cnidocytes, also known as nematocysts, are the stinging cells that a lot of sea anemones and hydrozoans have. These cells are basically little stingers that hang out and stab whatever touches them before releasing a toxin. Most animals will avoid these, but a lot of sea slugs have learned to eat them. They don’t just digest them, though. They will take these cells and, similarly to the chloroplasts, will remove them from the other food and utilize them themselves. They keep these in cnidosacs, which from what I can tell are specific to aeolid sea slugs. The most discussed species that does this is Glaucus atlanticus. They look really cool and float in the water. Touching them is really dangerous, especially because they concentrate the venom in their cnidosacs and make it more deadly than it originally was in the original species.

I guess the main thing that drew me to sea slugs is the fact that so many of them I criminals, looking at it. They’re fascinating and gorgeous as well! I’ve been crocheting a bunch of them since January. I think I’ve made over twenty by now? I lost count. Some of them are based off of real slugs and some aren’t. My first ones were all dorid, meaning they had little gill plumes on their backs, but I just started making an aeolid one (the ones with all the cerata ((the little horn like outgrowths)) on their backs).

One last thing: these guys are TINY. The pictures make them seem much bigger but do not be mistaken, these guys are SMALL. Most of them are like. Rice grain size. Some are bigger, the biggest (Aplysia vaccaria) is like 39 inches, but most are SO SMALL AND I LOVE THEM. I have not seen one in person yet but I need to within this year or I will spontaneously combust.

Thank you for the ask!!! Sorry again it took so long to reply, but it was really fun to look back at the stuff that got me into them. I think I’ll finish this off with some more pictures of various slugs that I love :3

Nudibranchs detected!

In order of appearance:

Costasiella kuroshimae, “sea sheep” — sacoglossan. Glaucus atlanticus, “blue sea dragon” — nudibranch! Elysia crispata, “lettuce sea slug” — sacoglossan. Babakina anadoni — nudibranch! Chromodoris willani, “Willan’s chromodoris” — nudibranch! Dirona albolineata, “alabaster nudibranch” — nudibranch! Jorunna parva, “sea bunny” — nudibranch! Placida cremoniana — sacoglossan. Nembrotha kubaryana, “variable neon slug” — nudibranch! Acanthodoris lutea, “orange-peel doris” — nudibranch!

7 nudibranchs detected!

Generally you unbutton and re-button a suit coat when you sit down and stand up.

You’re supposed to hold wine or champagne glasses by the stem to avoid warming up the liquid inside. A character out of their depth might hold the glass around the sides instead.

When rich/important people forget your name and they’re drunk, they usually just tell you that they don’t remember or completely skip over any opportunity to use your name so they don’t look silly.

A good way to indicate you don’t want to shake someone’s hand at an event is to hold a drink in your right hand (and if you’re a woman, a purse in the other so you definitely can’t shift the glass to another hand and then shake)

Americans who still kiss cheeks as a welcome generally don’t press lips to cheeks, it’s more of a touch of cheek to cheek or even a hover (these days, mostly to avoid smudging a woman’s makeup)

The distinctions between dress codes (black tie, cocktail, etc) are very intricate but obvious to those who know how to look. If you wear a short skirt to a black tie event for example, people would clock that instantly even if the dress itself was very formal. Same thing goes for certain articles of men’s clothing.

Open bars / cash bars at events usually carry limited options. They’re meant to serve lots of people very quickly, so nobody is getting a cosmo or a Manhattan etc.

These events are almost always open bar. They're not trying to make their money back on alcohol. They want you to drink and eat and donate generously.

If there are cocktails, there will be at most two on offer, pre-made in large tubs. You cannot order a different version, it is what it is.

There are two types of events: cocktail style or seated. The first includes roaming hors d'oeuvres or a fancy buffet with tiny plates called a grazing station. For a long night, the roaming food will get a little bigger throughout the evening and have a 'main' at some point based around a protein.

A seated event will usually be more structured and may include multiple courses. Silver service is not in vogue anymore. You are likely to get either alternating meals brought to you like at a wedding, or served banquet style. A good caterer can get a plate to everyone in a 300 person event in about three minutes.

Drunk people are the same no matter how expensive their suits. They still laugh too loud, spill their drinks and slip on the dance floor. They are usually less embarrassed about doing coke in the bathrooms.

A full scale event that starts at 6pm will have staff arriving at noon to begin setup. Earlier if there's a light show or pyrotechnics. Typically venues don't just have 30 tables and three hundred chairs lying around, let alone table cloths, chair covers, etc. It's all rented and brought in on the day. Bands and DJs will be running audio tests in the background throughout.

Most heritage buildings that host these things, like museums and manor houses, aren't really designed for them. They might put down mats so you're not walking in stilettos over two hundred year old wooden floors, the kitchens are weirdly far away, and there are not enough taps. There is never anywhere for staff to sit, so if you open the wrong door you might find half a dozen waiters sitting on upturned milk crates in a room full of million dollar paintings, eating the left over bread.

Really old buildings don't have enough bathrooms, which means the staff will be sharing with the guests.

Clean up starts the second the event ends, if not sooner. Unattended glasses will start to disappear first, then table decorations. When the timer ticks over, the lights come back on and exhausted staff strip the tables, pack up dirty glasses and unopened wine bottles and have to Tetris it all into the back of a van. The venue is booked for that day only, so everything has to be gone before anyone can go home. A large event that finishes at midnight might take until 3am to be cleared away.

Books are precious, but not to the point you can't deface them or reuse them in ways that you want/need, especially not a dime a dozen copy of a popular series.

I've destroyed books. Dozens of books. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and The Hobbit and Dog Man and Avatar: the Last Airbender and and and...

They're not precious irreplaceable artifacts, a lot of them are printed on shit paper bound with shit glue and they fall apart after enough readings. I used them for art projects and library decor and cut them into bookmarks. We bought more copies.