Neon Blue sea slug from Fraser Island?

January 1, 2005
From: Neil Rhodes

This was found washed up on the beach on Fraser Island and photographed on the spot, it was not touched as the person taking the photo was unsure what it was. Described as being the size of a UK 50 pence coin.

Locality: Beach, washed up on sandy beach, Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia, Length: 12 mm. 12 November 2004. Photographer: Ginny Marsh

Vivid neon blue in colour with black tips to its feather appearance. Please help if you can, it may not even be a sea slug but heaving trawled through this forum it seemed to me that if anyone can identify this mystery its you guys.

Please help.
Many thanks and in anticipation

Neil

neil@digital-cameras.com

Rhodes, N, 2005 (Jan 1) Neon Blue sea slug from Fraser Island?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12868

Dear Neil,
Sea slugs don't look their best when they are stranded like this out of water. This is Glaucus atlanticus which you will see on if you have a look at the Fact Sheet, and accompanying messages, is a remarkable nudibranch which spends its life floating upside down on the water surface, feeding on Physalia, which in Australia we call a 'blue-bottle'. It is certainly worthwhile treating this animal with care because when it eats a blue-bottle it stores the worst of the stinging cells in the tips of the blue-tipped processes [cerata] arranged in fan-shapes down its body, and reuses them for its own protection
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2005 (Jan 1). Comment on Neon Blue sea slug from Fraser Island? by Neil Rhodes. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/12868

Factsheet

Glaucus atlanticus

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