''Elysia marginata'' is a marine

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

in the family Plakobranchidae. It is known for its ability to regenerate its whole body and heart after autotomizing it from its head.

Distribution

While there are few records of its distribution, ''E.marginata'' is widely distributed in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

ocean region and has been found living in depths of . It was first observed off of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

and

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

Description

''E. marginata'' is described as having a green body with black and cream spots. It has tall, thin

parapodia In invertebrates, the term parapodium ( Gr. ''para'', beyond or beside + ''podia'', feet; plural: parapodia) refers to lateral outgrowths or protrusions from the body. Parapodia are predominantly found in annelids, where they are paired, unjointed ...

with a black band along its parapodial edge and a submarginal orange band. This species can be distinguished from other Indo-Pacific species by the white band found between the orange and black marginal bands. ''E. marginata'' has both a sedentary and migratory form, with the sedentary form reaching up to in length, and the migratory rarely exceeding .

Ecology

Like other species such as ''

Elysia ornata ''Elysia ornata'', commonly known as ornate elysia or ornate leaf slug, is a species of sea slug, a marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusk. This sea slug superficially resembles a nudibranch, yet it does not belong to that suborder of gastropo ...

'', ''Elysia marginata'' lives in shallow water and feeds on

Bryopsis ''Bryopsis'' is a genus of marine green algae in the family Bryopsidaceae. It is frequently a pest in aquariums, where it is commonly referred to as hair algae. Introduction ''Bryopsis''/ˌbɹaɪˈɑpsɪs/ is a genus of macroscopic, siphonous m ...

algae off the rocky bottom. E. marginata uses kleptoplasty to sequester the chloroplasts from the algae it consumes. These chloroplasts are stored in ''Elysia marginata'''s highly branched digestive gland that is lined by cells that maintain the ingested chloroplasts over its entire body. Unlike other sea slugs, which can only shed minor body parts, ''Elysia marginata'' and '' Elysia atroviridis'' can autotomize their heads completely from the rest of their body. ''E. marginata'' separates its head from the transverse groove over the course of several hours. Due to the slow nature of body separation, it is suggested that body shedding is a controlled mechanism to eliminate parasites, as the time-consuming nature of this behavior is not an efficient way to avoid predators and imitated predators in studies did not induce autotomy. However, like other sacoglossans, ''E. marginata'' can survive solely by photosynthesis from kleptoplasty after separation from their digestive system. Like other

sea slugs Sea slug is a common name for some marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are sea snails (marine gastropod mollusks) that over evolutionary tim ...

, Sacoglossans are hermaphrodites and reproduce sexually. They produce dimorphic eggs with two distinct larval morphs: small eggs that develop into

planktotrophic Marine larval ecology is the study of the factors influencing dispersing larvae, which many marine invertebrates and fishes have. Marine animals with a larva typically release many larvae into the water column, where the larvae develop before met ...

larvae and large eggs that develop into lecithotrophic larvae that develop without needing to consume plankton.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q57263206 Plakobranchidae Gastropods described in 1871

Distribution

Description

Ecology

See also

References