References:• Hamilton, P.V. She really wants to "play" with them....gently if possible.....could be a future marine biologist budding here.

My hypothesis is that the water has become to cold for them to survive. She so wants to "save" them! Please find attached 2 images of some type of sea slug (?) There is clearly some damage but I can't see just what has happened. I thought the best way to answer this was to add some labels to your photos and refer you to the Sea Hare mantle cavity page.

I will send pictures to our Forum as soon as I can.. Dear Carlo,We will look forward to seeing them.Best wishes,Bill Rudman. If you are interested in how snails became slugs have a look at the What is a slug? Any reason why? From your photo it is definitely a Sea Hare, and it is almost certainly Aplysia brasiliana.
'Mysterious beast' lurks under lake, 'What?' Dear Dana,Yes your animal is almost certainly A. brasiliana and the lump on its back is what remains of the shell and mantle cavity its snail ancestors would have had. @ Christy: "Goo ball", yes! If you go to the Sea Hares page you will find links, messages and more information about these animals.

Bill Rudman. Red Sea Invertebrates. I have worked on their biology in the Placida/Boca Grande area since 1970, and they swim quite well; in fact I tracked one individual which swam non-stop for about 2 hours while travelling about 1 km. In the middle of the body on the dorsal surface was a circular sail like appendage with which the snails swam. i dont think they bite or are toxic but id like to know for sure and any other info you may have. thank you for your time. @natsukah: Dozens of them! In particular, have a look at the photos of Aplysia extraordinaria which is a swimming species from Australia, and shows the large parapodia used for swimming. Wow! It was circular and seemed fixed. For more information on Aplysia brasiliana have a look both above and below your message for previous messages and discussions on this swimming West Atlantic Sea Hare. Mine was hidden for almost a week, I was worried that it was dead. Dear Mary,Your mystery animal is a Sea Hare and the species you found is almost certainly Aplysia brasiliana. Locality: Isle of Palms, Surf , South Carolina, United States, Atlantic Ocean, 02 June 2006, intertidal. Locality: Intercoastal Waterway/Channel/Tidal Pool/Wilmington, 2 feet, North Carolina, USA, Atlantic Ocean, June 7, 2008, Intertidal. I have now managed to capture and photograph one of these slugs. Do you know if A. willcoxi is indeed valid, and where the description for it is? Photographer: Carlos Meirelles. Do you know of any other references/literature involving such burrowing behavior? Sorry not up on the Metric system!

The paper has a printed date of 1886, but sometimes the printed date on a paper is misleading because the paper may not have been actually published, or distributed, until the following year. Thank you.Nancy Kielich. Neat web-site!Rob Porter.

Have a look at some of the other messages on this page showing animals from Florida. Aplysia willcoxi and A. brasiliana are both large, variably coloured species, which swim. Any Information would be greatly appreciated. I am a university student and have been studying Aplysia for 3 years. I found one washed up on a sandbar. Could it be an A. juliana? I note that there are quite a few published papers on aspects of the physiology and DNA of A. cervina,  but since its identity seems so problematic, I wonder how these researchers have been identifying their animals? There are a couple of swimming species found in Florida, Aplysia brasiliana and Aplysia morio, and if you look at the recent messages on both those pages you will find they have been appearing and dying in large swarms, in Florida in the last couple of months. At present we don't have this species on the Forum, and I can't recall having seen a photo of the living animal before. Any reason for thinking it was a slug? Hello, After reading Michael D. Millers' account of sea turtles dining on Sea Hares, I'm left wondering if there is a correlation in the two sightings. Debby. If you are interested in background information on Sea Hares go to the General Topics index [top left of page], where among other things you will information on their purple or reddish 'ink'. We'd like to know what it is. It finally broke free and swam away. I know it's not the nudibranch found on Sargassum. Migratory molluscs, with emphasis on swimming and orientation in the sea hare, Aplysia.

Her revision was based on literature reports and preserved specimens and I suspect at least a third of those species are unnecessary, but until species are studied on the basis of large scale populations we are not going to sort them out, considering the variability in colour of most species. I have reviewed the pictures on your site and the closest I can find is the Aplysia fasciata. Aplysia fasciata swimming Elysia timida dance Llacuna Boja Gymnosomata – Sea Angels Sea Butterflies Lobster attack on Aplysia Melibe leonina feeding Nudibranch eats nudibranchs Nudibranchs of Bill Rudman. ; Coan, E.V. When they are not swimming they are stuck to the side of the tank moving around like a slug. If you go to the Sea Hares Fact Sheet you will find links to a lot of information on these fascinating animals.

Locality: Singer island , 1 1/2 ft - 2 ft water, Florida, USA, Atlantic coast, April 2005, close to shore. I saw the snails in the light of bright security lights at night.

This is a Sea Hare, and almost certainly Aplysia brasiliana, the common brown swimming sea hare in your part of the world. The Heilprin paper you are looking for is not listed in Gary McDonald's bibliography because it lists only nudibranch papers, not other opisthobranchs, so Heilprin's papers which include sea hares and nudibranchs are in the bibliography, but the one you were after did not include nudibranchs.

I saved the juvenile green one in my salt water aquarium and fed it romaine lettuce until it died.

Thanks for any info you can provided.

You often find Sea Hares in large groups because that's how their populations work.
Locality: Beach, 10 cm, Ceara, Brazil, Atlantic Ocean, 02 February 2007, Intertidal Zone. Yes your research was correct. Species I know about include:Aplysia brasiliana (West Atlantic)Aplysia depilans (East Atlantic)Aplysia fasciata (East Atlantic)Aplysia extraordinaria (east Australia), Medina, M., Collins, T., Walsh, P.J. The next morning we found one (possibly the same one) washed up on the island about 20 yards from where we had seen it the night before. Aplysia fasciata, common name the "mottled sea hare", or the "sooty sea hare", is an Atlantic species of sea hare or sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Aplysiidae. This specimen is much smaller than the two I saw before. Dear Nancy,I think the animal you are describing is a Sea Hare which are sometimes called Inkfish because many of them squirt out a purplish coloured ink when they are disturbed. (1960) Revision of the world species of.

If a name is available we then need to consider whether it is a 'good' or 'valid' species or whether the species it refers to already has a name. I would agree that the spotted animal here is the same as the earlier one which I, on the basis of the Marcus's publication,  identified as A. cervina. Intertidal It was taking loud breaths and we assumed it was in distress, but we didn't know what to do about it, not having a net. It feeds on Ulva and flaps its wing-like 'parapodia' to swim. Re: Sea Hare found on Lovers Key beach May 5, 2010 From: Mary and Sang Hwang Concerning message #17084: There is a beautiful stretch of state park beach just off Bonita Springs Road which you access either thru the main entrance to the park, which is an $8 car fee, and then by taking a tram or by parking just before the bridge and walking thru a gate and paying the $2 state park … I would like to mention that I also spotted a couple sea turtles hanging out in the same area, which I've never seen before.

If you continue to use the website, we assume your consent. I was in about 10 feet of water and this little golden yellow slug came swimming by.