Aplysia californica
| California sea hare | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| An Aplysia californica releasing ink after being disturbed | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Euopisthobranchia clade Aplysiomorpha |
| Superfamily: | Aplysioidea |
| Family: | Aplysiidae |
| Genus: | Aplysia |
| Species: | A. californica |
| Binomial name | |
|
Aplysia californica (James Graham Cooper, 1863) |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Aplysia nettiae Winkler, 1959 |
|
Aplysia nettiae Winkler, 1959
The California sea hare, also known as the California sea slug, scientific name Aplysia californica, is a species of sea slug, specifically a sea hare, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the sea hare family, Aplysiidae.
This species is found on the Pacific coast of California, United States, and northwestern Mexico (including the Gulf of California). Aplysia inhabit the photic zone to graze on algae, mainly the intertidial and sub-littoral zones usually not deeper than 18–20 m.
The maximum length recorded for the California sea hare is 75 cm (30 in) when crawling and thus fully extended, although most adult specimens are half this size or smaller. Adult animals can weigh up to 7 kg (15 lb). A closely related species, Aplysia vaccaria, the black sea hare, can grow to be larger still.
Because of the toxins in its body that come from consuming algae, the California sea hare has very few predators. Among these, however, is the giant green anemone, which reportedly takes them in large numbers; however, the anemone will capture a sea hare and then proceed to digest only 67-85% of it before regurgitating the remains. This is because the anemone consumes only enough of the sea hare to expose the sea hare's digestive gland and its associated toxins. Once this gland has been exposed, it causes the anemone to reject all of the remaining undigested animal, including parts it would otherwise have taken in as food. Other predators include starfish, lobsters, and the ophistobranch Navanax inermis which will take juveniles.
When it is considerably disturbed, the sea hare is capable of releasing two different kinds of ink from different locations within its mantle cavity, much in the way an octopus does. One ink is reddish-purple and comes from what is called the purple ink gland, while the other is milky white, comes from what is called the opaline gland, and contains the aversive chemical opaline.
...
Wikipedia