'Teeth' in the gut of Bursatella

March 10, 2000
From: Jack Rudloe

Dear Dr. Rudman:
Do you have any information on the "teeth" in the crop of Bursatella and Aplysia? There's an orange crop, or stomach that has a dozen or so triangular teeth-like structures that appear to be made out of some unusual transluscent yellow or green material that I find intriguing. This year in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, we've got swarms of Bursatella washing up on the beaches, and I was wondering if anyone ever looked at the "teeth" for some unique bio-material. Any information will be appreciated, and thanks for having your slug website. See ours at www.Gulfspecimen.org
Thanks,
Jack Rudloe,
President

gspecimen@sprintmail.com

Rudloe, J., 2000 (Mar 10) 'Teeth' in the gut of Bursatella. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2068

Dear Jack,
The gut of the sea hares follows a very similar design throughout the Order. I have used a very old drawing of Cuvier's (1803) of the opened gizzard region to illustrate the arrangement [mainly because most people don't get a chance to see these old figures]. The inset is a sketch of mine to show the whole gut. In Cuvier's drawing many of the hooks in the filter chamber (C) are missing. They should form a dense band right around the chamber.

There is a muscular buccal bulb (bb), opening at the mouth, and it contains the broad rasping radular ribbon used to break off pieces of the algae it feeds. A pair of long salivary glands (sg) open into it. the oesophagus is a large extensible sac or crop (cr) in which pieces of algal food are stored before being crushed in the gizzard, which is broken into 3 regions (ABC). The first (A) is unarmed and presumably is just an anterior holding sac for partially digested food forced down from the crop. The second part of the gizzard (B) has a basal layer of circular muscle encircling the gizzard, and is lined with large chitinous pyramidal crushing plates which reduce the algal plates to fine pieces and a slurry of algal 'juice'. The third region (C) is lined with find recurved chitinous hooks which filter the crushed slurry of food, preventing large particles from moving further down the gut.

The stomach (st) is a very small chamber into which the ducts (D) of the digestive gland open. Also opening into the stomach are the caecum (F) and the intestine (E). Then stomach and caecum are lined with ciliated ridges and there is obviously a very complicated sorting process going on in the stomach, separating edible and inedible particles from the gizzard, and faecal and excretory products from the digestive gland. The caecum seems to be where the faecal pellets are formed.

This is probably more than you wanted to know. Suffice to say that the gizzard plates are of two sorts. A band of large crushing plates and then a region of relatively fine hooks packed close together to form a filter chamber.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 2000 (Mar 10). Comment on 'Teeth' in the gut of Bursatella by Jack Rudloe. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/2068

Factsheet

What are Sea Hares? - page 2

Related messages

  1. Aplysia from Bay of Bengal
    From: Rajesh Kumar, May 5, 2010
  2. Re: Food of Aplysia from Hawaii
    From: Kate Werner, January 13, 2009
  3. Re: Food of Aplysia from Hawaii
    From: Kate Werner, January 12, 2009
  4. Re: Aplysia brasiliana from Texas, Gulf of Mexico
    From: Georgia Doyle, October 9, 2008
  5. Strange phenomenon with Sea Hare
    From: Ute Duvenhage, February 19, 2008
  6. Re: Sea hare being eaten by crab - Reunion Is.
    From: Hugues Flodrops, February 9, 2008
  7. Re: Slugs of my childhood - Baja California
    From: Jeff Goddard, November 10, 2005
  8. Slugs of my childhood - Baja California
    From: Alicia Sarun, November 9, 2005
  9. Why are they called Sea Hares?
    From: Bill Rudman, May 14, 2005
  10. Dangerous to dogs, yes, but what about to people?
    From: John Vincent, April 13, 2005
  11. Unknown worm mass
    From: Rick Eastwood, February 10, 2004
  12. Sea Hares - strange behaviour.
    From: Krista Recsei, January 12, 2004
  13. Aplysia in Thailand
    From: Dunyaporn Trachootham, December 1, 2003
  14. Re: Sea Hares and Red Tides
    From: Josh Anderson, November 20, 2003
  15. Sea Hares & Red Tides
    From: Josh Anderson, November 19, 2003
  16. Re: Sea Hare from Hawaii
    From: Dee Wamock, October 8, 2003
  17. Sea Hare eggs
    From: Angie Jones, September 12, 2003
  18. Sea Hare from Hawaii
    From: Dee Wamock, August 25, 2003
  19. Are Sea Hares in Mexico edible?
    From: Pepe Herrera, August 11, 2003
  20. Sea Hares [Aplysia] in Channel Ids
    From: Stephen R Hoskins, February 18, 2002
  21. Genetic phylogeny of Aplysia in the UK
    From: Stephen Hoskings, February 8, 2002
  22. Genetic Studies of Sea Slugs
    From: Eric Diano, March 26, 2001
  23. Information about Sea Hares
    From: Ray and Danny, March 12, 2001
  24. Overview of Aplysia reproduction
    From: Moira Rankin, December 30, 2000
  25. Sea Hares & egg laying
    From: L. Rivard, October 17, 2000
  26. Participant information
    From: Sara Black, October 5, 2000
  27. Where can I find an Aplysia book?
    From: Suzanne Grosso-Mennecke, September 29, 2000
  28. Sea Hares and Tide Pools
    From: Will Akers, September 24, 2000
  29. More Sea Slug Hitchhikers
    From: Andrew Trevor-Jones, September 23, 2000
  30. I need information on Sea Hares
    From: Chantelle, July 13, 2000
  31. Learning in Aplysia
    From: Raphaël Favre, June 29, 2000
  32. Swimming Aplysia from Philippines
    From: Erwin Koehler, June 24, 2000
  33. Galapagos Sea Hare
    From: Mark Blum, June 19, 2000
  34. Sea Hares from the Red Sea
    From: Alaa youssry Moustafa, May 25, 2000
  35. Aplysia Osmoregulation
    From: Myrtle, February 25, 2000
  36. Aplysia from Japan
    From: Yasuhiro Shirai, February 17, 2000
  37. Anatomy of Aplysia
    From: Sylvia E. Jones, January 28, 2000
  38. What is this?
    From: FAbienne Bovis, January 3, 2000
  39. Sea Hare information
    From: alexis, November 13, 1999
  40. Where in Europe is Aplysia available ?
    From: Ulrich Storz, November 7, 1999

Show factsheet and all related messages