Re: Swimming Slug from Greece

August 6, 2002
From: George Sherman

Dear Dr. Rudman:
Thank you for posting my earlier letter and for your tentative identification of my slug as a Sea Hare, probably Aplysia fasciata. My slug does look a lot like the photos of Xavier's 'sea bat' that you posted on 10 July 2002 and the photo of the Aplysia fasciata in the Factsheet. However, there are some differences in shape. Moreover, I saw only one pair of tentacles. So I am sending copies of the photos I have of the animal to you by snail mail just in case it is something different. Also, I'd like to correct an error I made in my original letter. I said that the slug was out of water for about 5 minutes without ill effects, but my fiancee pointed out to me that the boys had replaced it into the water while I was gone looking for a knife to cut off the fishing line around its neck. It was probably out of the water less than 2 minutes.

Sincerely,
George Sherman

gcsherman1@aol.com

Sherman, G., 2002 (Aug 6) Re: Swimming Slug from Greece . [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/7561

Dear George,
Definitely an Aplysia, and almost certainly A. fasciata. I guess the reason the large oral tentacles, alongside the mouth, are not very obvious, for that matter why the whole head is not very obvious, is because it is in some distress. With fishing line around its 'neck' it is trying to contract its head which only ends up making it more swollen [see inset - upper photo]. Sea Hares can survive out of water for some hours if they get stranded at low tide, as long as they are out of the direct sunlight, so being out of the water a couple of minutes would be no great trial.

The lower right photo shows it out of water with the large swimming parapodial flaps extended out on each side of the body.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 2002 (Aug 6). Comment on Re: Swimming Slug from Greece by George Sherman. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/7561

Factsheet

Aplysia fasciata

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