| Elysia crispata | |
|---|---|
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| Lettuce sea slug | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Heterobranchia informal group Opisthobranchia |
| Superfamily: | Placobranchoidea |
| Family: | Placobranchidae |
| Genus: | Elysia |
| Species: | E. crispata |
| Binomial name | |
| Elysia crispata |
|
Elysia crispata, common name the lettuce sea slug, is a large and colorful species of sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk.
The lettuce slug resembles a nudibranch, but it is not closely related to that order of gastropods. It is instead a sacoglossan.
Contents |
Distribution
This species lives in the tropical parts of the western Atlantic, the Caribbean faunal zone.
Description
This species is called the lettuce slug because it is often green in color, and it always has a very frilly edge to its parapodia. This makes the slug resemble the curly kinds of lettuce, such as the lollo rosso variety. The maximum length of this species is about 50 mm.
The lettuce slug is extremely variable in color: it can also be blue, or very pale with red lines or yellow lines.
Anatomy
This sea slug (in common with some other sacoglossans) has algal chloroplasts (from its seaweed food sources) functioning within its tissues, providing it with sugars. This unusual phenomenon is known as kleptoplasty.
References
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