Aplysia depilans in Guernsey

October 1, 1999
From: Andy Horton

Dear Bill,

A Sea Hare, Aplysia depilans, floated into St. Peter Port harbour, Guernsey, British Channel Islands on September 21, this year. It weighed 242 grams and was 147 mm long and 80 mm wide. The parapodia (conspicuous lateral lobes) of Aplysia depilans are fused posteriorly.

This is the first A. depilans I have seen although in June and July of this year I saw at least one hundred of the commoner A. punctata either spawning on seaweed or washed up on Guernsey beaches. [Reported by: Richard Lord from Guernsey, fishinfo@guernsey.net]

Andy Horton

bmlss@compuserve.com

Horton, A., 1999 (Oct 1) Aplysia depilans in Guernsey. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1380

Thanks Andy,
By 'floating in' do you mean it was dead? The photo looks a bit post mortem. Reminds me of taking a new technician on a collecting trip some years ago and after two days without him finding anything, he was feeling as though he was letting down the team effort. His first find, a day later, was a very large but dead Aplysia extraordinaria, which, to encourage him, we all said was a good find. However after 3 hours driving in the hot sun with the dead Aplysia (and an hour still to drive), even he agreed it had to go, and with mixed feelings he was given the job of throwing it into the nearest paddock, much to the puzzlement of a herd of cows.
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 1999 (Oct 1). Comment on Aplysia depilans in Guernsey by Andy Horton. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1380

Factsheet

Aplysia depilans

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