Aplysiidae
| Aplysiidae | |
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| Aplysia californica, a typical sea hare, shown here releasing a cloud of purple pigment, probably as a reaction to being disturbed. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Clade: | Heterobranchia |
| Clade: | Euthyneura |
| Clade: | Euopisthobranchia |
| Clade: | Anaspidea |
| Superfamily: | Aplysioidea |
| Family: |
Aplysiidae Lamarck, 1809 |
| Genera | |
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See text. |
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| Synonyms | |
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See text.
Aplysiidae 'is the only family in the superfamily Aplysioidea, within the clade Anaspidea. These animals are commonly called sea hares because, unlike most sea slugs, they are often quite large, and when they are underwater, their rounded body shape and the long rhinophores on their heads mean that their overall shape resembles that of a sitting rabbit or hare.
Sea hares are however shell-less sea snails, and some species are extremely large. The Californian black sea hare, Aplysia vaccaria is arguably the largest living gastropod species, and is certainly the largest living shell-less gastropod.
Members of the Aplysiidae have an atrophied inner shell (in contrast with the nudibranchs, which have no shell at all). In Aplysia and Syphonota, this shell is a soft flattened plate over the visceral rear end, where it is fully or partially enclosed in the mantle skin. In Dolabella auricularia, the shell is ear-shaped. The shell is only present in the larval stage of the two genera Bursatella and Stylocheilus, and on this basis they have been grouped into the subfamily Dolabriferinae.
They are rather large animals. Their length varies between 20 cm and 75 cm (Aplysia vaccaria), and they can weigh well over 2 kg. They are cosmopolitan and found in temperate and tropical seas, inhabiting shallow coastal areas and sheltered bays, thick with vegetation.
The Aplysiidae are herbivorous, eating a variety of red, green or brown algae and eelgrass. Their color is diet-derived from the pigments of the algae. They concentrate the toxins found on algae.
Some species spout ink when disturbed or attacked, and they may also swim (rather than crawl) away, using their broad wing-like flaps or parapodia. The ink is extracted from their algal food, rather than being synthesized.
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Wikipedia