Identity of Aplysia brasiliana

November 2, 1999
From: Paul Hamilton

The sea hares which Anne Dupont has discussed and provided pictures of from West Florida appear to be Aplysia brasiliana. I have worked on their biology in the Placida/Boca Grande area since 1970, and they swim quite well; in fact I tracked one individual which swam non-stop for about 2 hours while travelling about 1 km. I had some representative specimens identified by Nellie Eales in about 1974, who placed them in the British Museum after identifying them as A. brasiliana. Dr. Eales was the Aplysia taxonomist at the time.

Paul Hamilton
Dept. of Biology
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72032

paulh@mail.uca.edu

Hamilton, P., 1999 (Nov 2) Identity of Aplysia brasiliana. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1467

Dear Paul,
Thanks for the message. I am familiar with your interesting papers on celestial navigation and swimming in Aplysia brasiliana. It is good to get a name on Anne's animal. All the indications, suggested that workers in the Caribbean had decided it was Aplysia brasiliana but I could find no literature reference to confirm this - and the original description didn't look very similar.

If you have any information on your research, or on other Caribbean sea hares, it would be very welcome on the Forum.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

References:
• Hamilton, P.V. and H.W. Ambrose III, 1975. Swimming and orientation in Aplysia brasiliana (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Marine Behaviour and Physiology 3: 131-144.
• Hamilton, P.V. and B.J. Russell, 1982. Field experiments on the sense organs and directional cues involved in offshore-oriented swimming by Aplysia brasiliana Rang (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 56: 123-143.
• Hamilton, P.V. and B.J. Russell, 1982. Celestial orientation by surface swimming Aplysia brasiliana Rang (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 56: 145-152.
• Hamilton, P.V., B.J. Russell, and H.W. Ambrose, 1982. Some characteristics of a spring incursion of Aplysia brasiliana into shallow water. Malacological Review 15: 15-19.
• Hamilton, P.V., 1984. Factors influencing the water speed of swimming sea hares, Aplysia brasiliana. Animal Behaviour 32: 367-373.
• Hamilton, P.V., 1985. Migratory molluscs, with emphasis on swimming and orientation in the sea hare, Aplysia. In: Migration: Mechanisms and Adaptive Significance, pgs. 212-226. Contributions in Marine Science, Supplement to Vol. 27.
• Hamilton, P.V., 1986. Swimming tracks of sea hares, Aplysia brasiliana, with discussion of the roles of swimming in sea hares. Veliger 28: 310 - 313.

Rudman, W.B., 1999 (Nov 2). Comment on Identity of Aplysia brasiliana by Paul Hamilton. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/1467

Factsheet

Aplysia brasiliana

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