Sea Hare from Thailand

May 4, 2001
From: Walabha Sinbul


Dear Bill,
I've been diving in Thailand for about 3 years and my interest is always about seaslug and nudibranch.

On April 14, while snorkeling with friends during ours holidays at Samed Island, Thailand, a friend of mine yelled that he found a gigantic snail grazing on green algae on the rock at about waist deep water. After taking a good look at that "gigantic snail", I yelled back to him that this chap was not an ordinary snail. He was a sea hare! Then we started to look around to search for more. We ended up finding about 20 sea hares! Some of them was eating alone. Some of them stayed close together as if ther were couple. The biggest one that we found was about 12 inches long [30cm]. The bigger they were, the darker their color was. We even found their pink ribbon like string of eggs attached to the rock nearby. I told my friend that we have to tell Bill about our discovery!

So Bill, could you please help us identify these sea hares we found? I browsed through the species list and it looks to me that they are Aplysia dactylomela. Thank you very much Bill. And by the way, is this a sea hare first report from Thailand? I have a feeling that they have been overlooked by divers because they are very big and very easy to spot. I don't know for other, but for me, they're so cute!

Sincerely yours
Walabha

walabha@hotmail.com

Sinbul, W., 2001 (May 4) Sea Hare from Thailand. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4264

Dear Walabha,
Thanks for the photos. Yes this is Aplysia dactylomela, which is one of the common tropical Sea Hares. I don't know of any records of Sea Hares from Thailand but there is no reason why there shouldn't occur there. Sea Hares are often overlooked because they are quite well camouflaged and because they often live in places that are not that good for nudibranchs. But as you have discovered, when they are big and occur in large numbers they are quite difficult to ignore.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (May 4). Comment on Sea Hare from Thailand by Walabha Sinbul. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4264

Factsheet

Aplysia dactylomela

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