Western Australian Museum › Explore › Tides & Islands – Day 12 – Sap Sucking Slugs

Tides & Islands – Day 12 – Sap Sucking Slugs

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The animals seen in these videos are being handled by experts who know how to avoid potential bites and stings. To avoid accidents it is recommended that all marine animals should be watched and not touched. Please enjoy the videos and remember to leave wildlife alone, both for their protection and yours.

These video diaries document the October 2011 field trip into remote areas of the Kimberley. This field trip was part of the Marine Life of Kimberley project to study and understand the marine biodiversity of the area.

Transcription

Just at the end of my finger, is a small mollusc, and it's called Sap Sucking Slug.

And this group of animals don't have a shell, and generally have chemical defenses but they've also got some other neat adaptations for survival. this particular slug has crawled inside part of the algae, the green algae, and is eating it from the inside out.

And so what it does it has a small radula tooth inside its mouth which is like a single knife and it uses it to pierce the cell-wall of the algae, crawl inside and then eat from the inside. It's quite a fantastic way to hide from predators as well as getting your food.

So it's quite a neat little animal, and very hard to find. It was actually found by John Huisman, when he was looking at this sample of algae.

 

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