California sea hare

California sea hare
California sea hare ( Aplysia californica )
Systematics
Order : Hind gill snails (Opisthobranchia) Subordination : Broad- footed snails (Anaspidea) Superfamily : Aplysioidea Family : Aplysiidae Genre : Aplysia Type : California sea hare
Scientific name
Aplysia californica
JG Cooper , 1863

The California sea hare ( Aplysia californica ) is a sea snail of the genus Aplysia and occurs mainly on the coast of California .

It is a very large marine snail up to 75 cm in length, but is typically only half that size. It is a herbivore and its main diet consists of red and brown algae, which leads to its typical dark color. The California sea hare is - like all sea hares - a hermaphrodite and lays eggs on the ground in strings.

This genus is known as an object of research by neuroscientists because it has extremely large neurons which can even be prepared without a microscope; see for example Eric Kandel .

The Californian sea hare is able to expel poisonous ink to ward off enemies, the toxins of which it extracts from the cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) it has eaten . A component of the cloud is called aplysiatoxin , although it is produced by the blue-green algae . The poison that causes swimmer's scabies has been detected in the blue-green algae Lyngbya , Schizothrix and Oscillatoria .

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1. ↑ Gordon W. Gribble: The diversity of naturally occurring organobromine compounds Chemical Society Reviews 28 (1999) pp 335-346 ISSN  0306-0012

Web links

Commons : Californian sea hare  album with pictures, videos and audio files