Page 19 - World of Animals - Issue #39

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx Bizarre! Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The neon hermaphrodite sea SPANISH SHAWL
Flabellina iodinea
slug that can smell underwater Class Gastropoda

The Spanish shawl slug is a nudibranch (from the Latin and Greek meaning Territory West coast of North
‘naked gills’) – a nod to this unusual creature’s shell-less form America, Canada, Mexico,
Gulf of California, Galápagos
Islands
Diet Hydroids
Lifespan Unknown
Adult weight Unknown
Conservation Status

NOT EVALUATED

They are

hermaphrodites
Individuals have both male and female They look like
organs, making the Spanish shawl a
hermaphrodite. Plants have a similar flamenco dancers
system; as they can’t move, they need to
be able to self-fertilise, but this is a rare Unlike most other sea slugs, the Spanish
occurrence for the Spanish shawl. Instead, shawl is able to swim. By flexing and
they are able to mate with any individual contracting its body it can move through
they come across, which is really useful the water column with ease. As its body
because they are so small that they don’t bends, the frills look similar to a flamenco
cross paths with each other very often. dancer’s dress.

They use their red Its digestive Bright colours

noses to smell system is on the help them
underwater outside of its body

The protruding red structures coming The bright orange tentacle-like body parts to survive
from the head are not eye stalks like are called cerata. They help the slug respire The orange appendages are not only
you see in other gastropods, but rather by extracting oxygen from the water, while functional, they are a warning sign to
chemosensory organs called rhinophores. also forming part of the digestive system. On predators. A myriad of bright colours
They are used to pick up the scent of top of that, they store the stinging cells of lets other animals know that the slug
dissolved chemical molecules, helping the the anemones the slug feasts on, which can is probably going to be poisonous, so
creature to smell prey or find a mate. then be used for defence. it’s not worth trying to eat it. © Alamy

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