Aplysia: Definition from Answers.com

Aplysia

Aplysia californica releasing a cloud of ink

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Heterobranchia informal group Opisthobranchia clade Aplysiomorpha P. Fischer, 1883
Superfamily:	Aplysioidea
Family:	Aplysiidae
Genus:	Aplysia Linnaeus, 1767

Species

See text.

The genus Aplysia belongs to the family Aplysiidae and is a genus of sea hares, which are a type of large sea slug. The general description of these sea hares can be found under the entry about the superfamily Aplysioidea (Sea hares)

These benthic herbivorous sea hares can become rather large, compared with other mollusks. They graze in tidal and subtidal zones of tropical waters, mostly in the Indo-Paciﬁc Ocean (23 species); but they can also be found in the Atlantic Ocean (12 species), with a few species occurring in the Mediterranean.

Aplysia, when threatened, releases clouds of ink to blind the attacker. Following the lead of Eric R. Kandel, the genus has been studied as a model organism by neurobiologists, because this ink-release response, as studied in Aplysia californica, is mediated by electrical synapses, which allow several neurons to fire synchronously (Kandel et al., 2000). This quick neural response is necessary for a speedy reaction to danger by the animal. Aplysia has only about 20,000 neurons making it a favorite case to study for reductionist neuroscientists.^[1]

Species

Species within the genus Aplysia are as follows. This list follows the studies of Medina et al. who established a phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus Aplysia through study of the partial mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data of ribosomal genes (rDNA).

Aplysia brasiliana (Rang, 1828) Mottled sea hare, sooty sea hare (junior synonym of Aplysia fasciata; different geographical populations of the same species)
- Distribution : West-Atlantic from New Jersey to Brazil, East-Atlantic around Ghana
- Length : up to 27 cm
- Color : variable

Aplysia californica

Aplysia californica (J.G. Cooper, 1863) California sea hare
- Distribution : Northeast Pacific
Aplysia cedrocensis (Bartsch & Rehder, 1939)
- Distribution : Northeast Pacific
Aplysia cervina (Dall & Simpson, 1901)
- Distribution : West Atlantic
Aplysia cornigera Sowerby, 1869
- Distributuion: Indian Ocean, West Pacific
Aplysia cronullae Eales, 1960
- Distribution : Southwest Pacific
Aplysia dactylomela (Rang, 1828) Spotted sea hare
- Distribution : Cosmopolitan; tropical and temperate seas.
- Color : from pale gray to green to dark brown.
- Description : large black rings on the mantle; good swimmer
Aplysia denisoni Smith, 1884
- Distribution : Indian Ocean, West Pacific
Aplysia depilans (Gmelin, 1791)
- Distribution : Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean.
- Description : thin, yellow inner shell
Aplysia donca (Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1960)
- Distribution : North America, West-Atlantic
Aplysia dura Eales, 1960
- Distribution : Southeast Atlantic, Southwest Pacific
Aplysia euchlora Adams in M.E.Gray, 1850
- Distribution : Northwest Pacific
Aplysia extraordinaria (Allan, 1932) (possibly = Aplysia gigantea)
- Distribution : Western Australia, New Zealand.
- Length : more than 40 cm
Aplysia fasciata (Poiret, 1798) ( Aplysia brasiliana Rang, 1828 is a junior synonym).
- Distribution : East Atlantic, Mediterranean, West Africa, Red Sea
- Length : 40 cm
- Color : dark brown to black.
- Description : sometimes a red border to the parapodia and oral tentacles;
Aplysia geographica (Adams & Reeve, 1850) (?)
- Distribution : Western Australia.
- Length : 60 cm
- Color : dark brown to black
- Description : the skin secretions are very distasteful, washed up specimens have been implicated in the deaths of dogs
Aplysia gigantea Sowerby, 1869
- Distribution : Indian Ocean, West Pacific
Aplysia gracilis Eales, 1960
- Distribution : Red Sea
Aplysia inca d'Orbigny, 1837
- Distribution : Southeast Pacific
Aplysia juliana (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832) Walking sea hare
- Distribution: cosmopolitan, circumtropicalin all warm seas
- Color: various, from uniform to pale brown
- Description: no purple gland, therefore no ink secretions; posterior end of the foot can act as a sucker
Aplysia keraudreni Rang, 1828
- Distribution: South Pacific
- Length: 25 cm
- Color: dark brown
Aplysia kurodai (Baba, 1937)
- Distribution: NW Pacific
- Length: 30 cm
- Color: dark brown to purplish black, dotted with white spots
Aplysia maculata Rang, 1828
- Distribution : Western Indian Ocean
Aplysia morio (A. E. Verrill, 1901) Atlantic black sea hare, Sooty Sea Hare
- Distribution: Northwest Atlantic
- Length: 40 cm
- Color: black to deep brown; no spots
Aplysia nigra d'Orbigny, 1837
- Distribution : Southwest Atlantic, South Pacific
Aplysia nigra brunnea Hutton, 1875
- Distribution: New Zealand
- Length: 10 cm
- Color: dark brown
Aplysia oculifera (Adams & Reeve, 1850)
- Distribution: Indian Ocean; West Pacific
- Description: small brown eye-spots
Aplysia parvula (Guilding in Moerch, 1863) Pygmy sea hare, Dwarf sea hare
- Distribution : worldwide in warm to temperate seas
- Length: 6 cm
- Color: brown to green spots
Aplysia pulmonica Gould, 1852
- Distribution : West Pacific
Aplysia punctata (Cuvier, 1803)
- Distribution: NE Atlantic
- Length: 20 cm
- Color: very variable
Aplysia rehderi Eales, 1960
- Distribution : Northeast Pacific
Aplysia reticulata Eales, 1960
- Distribution : Southwest Pacific
Aplysia reticulopoda (Beeman, 1960) Net-foot sea hare
- Distribution : Northeast Pacific
Aplysia robertsi Pilsbry, 1895
- Distribution : Northeast Pacific
Aplysia rudmani Bebbington, 1974
- Distribution : Indian Ocean
Aplysia sagamiana (Baba, 1949)
- Distribution: East Australia, Japan; Nortwest Pacific
Aplysia sibogae (Bergh, 1905) (?)(probably = Aplysia juliana)
Aplysia sowerbyi Pilsbry, 1895
- Distribution : Southwest Pacific
Aplysia sydneyensis (Sowerby, 1869)
- Distribution: Australia
- Length: 15 cm
- Description: not clearly defined
Aplysia tanzanensis Bebbington, 1974
- Distribution : Indian Ocean
Aplysia vaccaria (Winkler, 1955) California black sea hare (possibly ?= Aplysia cedrocensis)
- Distribution: Pacific Coast of California
- Length: very big – up to 75 cm
- Color: black
- Description: no purple ink; huge internal shell
Aplysia willcoxi (Hellprin, 1886) (?)
Aplysia winneba Eales, 1957
- Distribution : tropical East Atlantic

References

^ Redish, Edward F.. "Chapter 2: Cognitive Principles and Guidelines for Instruction". Teaching Physics With The Physics Suite. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-471-39378-8.

Kandel Eric R., Schwartz, J.H., Jessell, T.M. 2000. Principles of Neural Science, 4th ed., p.180. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Mónica Medina, Timothy Collins, and Patrick J. Walsh (2005). "Phylogeny Of Sea Hares In The Aplysia Clade Based On Mitochondrial Dna Sequence Data". Bulletin Of Marine Science, 76(3): 691–698, 2005 76 (3): 691–698. http://www.qsb.ucmerced.edu/mmedina/publications/Medina_etal05BMS.pdf. (full text as a pdf-file)

External links

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	sea hare
	Heart (invertebrate)
	hare