vimeomontage

Thursday, December 24, 2009

tiny spotted horned slug 04Dec2009

tiny spotted horned slug from BeachBum on Vimeo.
This little slug,
Plakobranchus ocellatus, was about 1.5cm long. It could contract and expand it's body at will. It was found rummaging on a muddy shore near a mangrove. There were quite a few of them around on the same part of the shore. It was difficult to notice the spotted pattern until one gets really close. The clip seems to show that the slug was moving fast ... relative to itself. It also had the ability to produce a copious amount of mucous to facilitate gliding over the substrate.
Although it looked largely sand brown coloured from a distance, parts of it were slightly greenish(chloroplasts?), brown-pink and grey. It does looks as if the upper part of the slug was being covered inwards by two parapodial flaps one on either side. However, they were not observed to open similar to how the geographica sea hare 'flies' through the water.

Read more about this slug here : http://www.seaslugforum.net/placocel.htm (CH, thank you for the link!)
Here is another interesting link : http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet/solarpow

1 comment:

  1. Think this could be Plakobranchus ocellatus.

    More info here : http://www.seaslugforum.net/placocel.htm

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