Do slugs eat Caulerpa taxifolia?

October 6, 2003
From: Ronnie

Are there any sea slugs that eat Caulerpa taxifolia? If so can you name the species, and if there are then why can't the sea slugs just eat it off the coast of California and Australia?
Ronnie

Hunter121588@AOL.com

Ronnie, 2003 (Oct 6) Do slugs eat Caulerpa taxifolia?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11014

Dear Ronnie,
If you look at the Caulerpa taxifolia Fact Sheet and some of the other pages referred to there, you will see that some sacoglossan sea slugs do eat Caulerpa taxifolia. In fact we now have many records on the Forum of Caulerpa taxifolia being eaten by the slug Elysia tomentosa in many parts of the world. The problem is that in nature, most animals do not control the abundance of the food plants and animals they feed on. They may do so for a short period in a certain place but it's not a good evolutionary plan to eat out your food. What do you do when its all gone? Certainly with sacoglossan sea slugs, there is no evidence that any species can eat enough of the algae they feed on to greatly affect its abundance. That is one of the reasons we have to be very careful about introducing foreign animals into an area in an attempt to control a pest. Often the control animal does not control the pest and becomes a pest itself.
Best wishes
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2003 (Oct 6). Comment on Do slugs eat Caulerpa taxifolia? by Ronnie. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11014

Factsheet

Caulerpa taxifolia in the Mediterranean

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