Nudibranch By Stephanie La Vecchio The Scientific Name

Nudibranch By: Stephanie La Vecchio

The Scientific Name Ø A nudibranch is a marine gastropod in the suborder nudibranchia.

Physical characteristics These animals are sometimes referred to as “sea slugs”, but this isn’t the precise term. Like other slugs Nudibranchs are shell-less mollusks. Ø Nudibranchs have a number of interesting traits. The first is there coloration, which is often very ornate, and also very bright. Nudibranchs come in a wide range of colors, from hot pink and yellow to zebra-striped, and they are eye-catching inhabitants of shallows and tide pools as a result. Nudibranch also develop outgrowths from their bodies which are sort of like soft spines, and they are capable of storing venom, stinging cells, and toxins from their prey in these outgrowths so that when they are bitten or attacked, they can fight back. Ø

Physical characteristics (cont. ) Ø The ability to sequester and re-use potentially harmful components of their prey makes the nudibranch rather unique. Most animals would die or become extremely sick if they consumed a wide variety of venomous creatures, yet nudibranchs have evolved to not only roll with the punches, but to actively reuse them.

Habitat Ø Nudibranchs live at virtually all depths of salt water, but reach their greatest size and variation in warm, shallow waters. Ø Feeding Ø Nudibranch are carnivorous. Some feed on sponges, other on hydroids, others on bryonzoans, and some are cannibals, eating other sea slug, or, on other occasions, members of their own species. Other groups feed on tunicates, barnacles, or anemones.

Reproduction Nudibranchs are hermaphroditic, and thus have a set of reproductive organs for both sexes, but they can rarely fertilize themselves. Ø Nudibranchs typically deposit their eggs within a gelatinous spiral. Ø

About nudibranch Ø In typical dorid nudibranchs, the mantle is thick and extends over the foot. The surface of the mantle may bear tubercles which vary in size, shape and number and are often a character used to identify nudibranchs. In many dorids acid glands and/or spicules are incorporated in the mantle tissue and it is thought that these are mainly defensive in function. However in Goniodorids, Polycerids and some other dorid families the mantle is progressively reduced to a ridge around the side of the body, from which pallial tentacles or processes arise. These processes usually have coloured tips and contain defensive glands and have been shown to produce chemicals distateful to fish. These chemicals are often manufactured from similar chemical compounds in the bryozoan or ascidian prey, or may be the same molecules selectively re-secreted by the nudibranch.

About nudibranch Ø The rhinophores. The head region of nudibranchs bears a pair of sensory tentacles called rhinophores. These structures are primarily chemosensory (smell, taste) in function. In many dorid nudibranchs the rhinophores can be retracted into a basal sheath. The shape of the rhinophores varies greatly from one species to another and a table showing the different types of rhinophore found in British nudibranchs is provided to help identification.

Sea Slug Video

Fun Facts Ø Ø Ø Ø Type: Invertebrate Diet: Carnivore Average lifespan in the wild: Up to 1 year Size: 0. 25 to 12 in (6 mm to 31 cm) Weight: Up to 3. 3 lbs (1. 5 kg) Did you know? Some nudibranchs are solar-powered, storing algae in their outer tissues and living off the sugars produced by the algae’s photosynthesis. Size relative to a tea cup: