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Spotted seahare
Australia · Indo Pacific -Coral Sea
The spotted sea hare: a large, soft-bodied herbivore with a thin internal shell and ear-like rhinophores. By day it often hides under rocks; it can swim by flapping its parapodia. Since 2002 it has spread quickly across the Mediterranean.
Share link: https://seaslugs.org.il/species/aplysia-dactylomela-australia-indo-pacific-coral-sea/
Thick body, pale greenish-yellow to olive-brown, covered with many black rings of different sizes. Parapodia free at the rear, with dark marks radiating on their inner surface.
Aplysia punctata is smaller and has small dots, not rings. Aplysia depilans has pale blotches and no rings.
Rocky shores, rock pools and sand with dense algae; mostly very shallow, to ~40 m.
Herbivore: red and green algae (Laurencia, Ulva, Cladophora and others).
