The sand slug,
scientific name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''Philine aperta'', is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
predatory
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
sea slug
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 t ...
with an internal shell, a
cephalaspid
Cephalaspidida is an extinct order of jawless fish in the subclass Cornuata.
See also
* ''Undichna'', a fish-fin, or fish-swimming fossil trail left as a fossil impression on a substrate, or the opposite impression on an overlying substrate
* ...
opisthobranch
Opisthobranchs () is now an informal name for a large and diverse group of specialized complex gastropods which used to be united in the subclass Opisthobranchia. That taxon is no longer considered to represent a monophyletic grouping.
Euopisth ...
, or head-shield slug. It is a
marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
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 ...
mollusc
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...
in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Philinidae
Philinidae is a family of medium-sized sea slugs, marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks. These are headshield slugs, in the order Cephalaspidea.Bouchet, P. (2012). Philinidae. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www. ...
.
Distribution
This species can be found in the eastern
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
from northern
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
to
southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
and is also found in the
Pacific and
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
s. It lives subtidally to several hundreds of metres underwater; in tropical waters it is found in deeper water.
Description
The sand slug is a sturdy, solid-bodied animal, white to cream in colour, with an internal shell and a folded appearance. It grows up to 100 mm in length.
[ZSILAVECZ, G. 2007. ''Nudibranchs of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay''. ]
Ecology
The sand slug is an active, sand-dwelling, predatory species; it eats small molluscs and worms which are swallowed whole, and then crushed in its
gizzard. The animal secretes
sulphuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
to deter predators.
Its egg masses are translucent, sausage-shaped and are attached to sandy bottoms by long mucous threads.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1559297
Philinidae
Gastropods described in 1767
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus