vimeomontage

Monday, December 7, 2009

Elysia ornata Leaf Slugs@Tanah Merah 06Dec2009

Elysia ornata @ Tanah Merah 06Dec2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Came across these Ornate leaf slugs cruising on the sandy bottom at Tanah Merah.
Usually difficult to spot amongst seagrass and seaweed as they are rather small at about 6cm long and greenish. However, this time they were easily noticeable as they were on bare sand. There was very little seaweed around too. Strangely, the slugs were rumaging on the sandy bottom instead of feeding on the Bryopsis seaweed which they are commonly seen on. There was not much Bryopsis in the lagoon. Note the continuous slime carpet maintained between the lower body and the sand whilst the slugs went about 'hoovering' the sand.

Depth (Intertidal) : 10 cm of water. Tide was about 0.3 m.
Location : Tanah Merah, Singapore
Length : about 6 cm
Time : about 7 pm.
Date : 06Dec2009

Read more about the slugs here :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/slugs/sacoglossa/ornata.htm
http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=elysorna
http://seaslugsofhawaii.com/species/Elysia-ornata-a.html

Click here for a nice picture of this
beautiful slug.

No comments:

Post a Comment