How many Elysia can you fit in a pot?
Who knows? But here’s what happened when the crew put 14 together in search of the philosophical answer to the question I was asking the other day on CJ where the shores were literally covered in Elysia…
Sad looking Elysia clumped together…
But then, it starts getting hot and steamy…
After an unpacking flurry, everyone stares into the pot in fascination as the action unfurls!
Elysia, as with all opisthobranchs, are hermaphrodites. They have both male and female sex organs which are located on the right side of the head (see the white things sticking out?). I arrived after my reefwalk on Kusu just in time to watch them stabbing at each other frantically. Before long, they had poked each other everywhere – parapodia (flappy bits), foot, head, etc. Apparently beforehand they had been inadvertently left in the sun for awhile. Whether it was the sun or the close proximity or some other unknown factor, apparently sticking many Elysia in a pot causes them to get into a mating frenzy.
Elysia belong to the order sacoglossa (sap suckers). Retaining the algae components from its diet give it the green colour, and enable it to have a symbiotic relationship with the chloroplasts from the algae.
Can’t wait for the next series of trips to check out if dumping many slugs in a pot will cause them to start mating.
Sad looking Elysia clumped together…
But then, it starts getting hot and steamy…
After an unpacking flurry, everyone stares into the pot in fascination as the action unfurls!
Elysia, as with all opisthobranchs, are hermaphrodites. They have both male and female sex organs which are located on the right side of the head (see the white things sticking out?). I arrived after my reefwalk on Kusu just in time to watch them stabbing at each other frantically. Before long, they had poked each other everywhere – parapodia (flappy bits), foot, head, etc. Apparently beforehand they had been inadvertently left in the sun for awhile. Whether it was the sun or the close proximity or some other unknown factor, apparently sticking many Elysia in a pot causes them to get into a mating frenzy.
Elysia belong to the order sacoglossa (sap suckers). Retaining the algae components from its diet give it the green colour, and enable it to have a symbiotic relationship with the chloroplasts from the algae.
Can’t wait for the next series of trips to check out if dumping many slugs in a pot will cause them to start mating.
4 Comments:
Yes, they were left out in hte sun, waiting for the Super Slug Girl to arrive from Kusu.
We had finished our little picnic, and were debating whether we wanted to just take a picture for the SSG and put the slugs back in their home, when Super Spotter looked in the pot and asked,"What's that?"
Once the exclamation "SEX!" went out, all the cameras kicked into action, and the sounds made by our dear old Dr. are a bit too much for this blog...
What super slug girl? :p
Sigh..this post was a pain to write. Can only imagine what the research for the video is going to be like. There's too much I don't know about this specific slug and the way it reproduces. Only enough in the books to make educated guesses based on same class/order.. :(
Super Slug Girl? Who that?
You laying claim to the title?
:Þ
Also, regarding the video research, I'm aiming to use the KISS principle whereever possible.
I hope that I won't have to throw that out the window.
And if you've been in the discussion sessions with Ria, Alvin and Jeremy, you will recall how silly the documentary can become, if I were to let them handle the thing all by themselves.
Scares the living daylights out of me.
*SHUDDER*
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