oh that's YOU with the leaf sheep sideblog!!
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 Iām 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 Iām not very familiar with them. As far as I know sea slugs outside of sacoglossa donāt 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 donāt 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. Theyāre fascinating and gorgeous as well! Iāve been crocheting a bunch of them since January. I think Iāve made over twenty by now? I lost count. Some of them are based off of real slugs and some arenāt. 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 Iāll finish this off with some more pictures of various slugs that I love :3
Nudibranchs detected!
In order of appearance:
Costasiella kuroshimae, āsea sheepā ā sacoglossan. Glaucus atlanticus, āblue sea dragonā ā nudibranch! Elysia crispata, ālettuce sea slugā ā sacoglossan. Babakina anadoni ā nudibranch! Chromodoris willani, āWillanās chromodorisā ā nudibranch! Dirona albolineata, āalabaster nudibranchā ā nudibranch! Jorunna parva, āsea bunnyā ā nudibranch! Placida cremoniana ā sacoglossan. Nembrotha kubaryana, āvariable neon slugā ā nudibranch! Acanthodoris lutea, āorange-peel dorisā ā nudibranch!
7 nudibranchs detected!
Note: OP did not list the species shown in image #5 ā identified as Chromodoris willani.
OH MY GOSH
This is the best moment of my life.
