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Additional Photos
underside
interior
green
young, 3 mm
young shell
laying eggs
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GALLERY
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Aplysia oculifera (Adams & Reeve,
1850)
Maximum size: 60 mm (Kay,
1979).
Identification:
This is a brown to olive-green sea hare flecked with white and usually
with small white and brown ocelli on the sides of its parapodia. The
parapodia are tall and ruffled.
Natural history:
Aplysia oculifera
is a moderately common (though sporadic) sea hare found in protected to moderately exposed
rocky habitats and Halimeda kanaloana
beds at depths of < 1 to 27 m (< 3 to 90 ft). Scott Johnson also
reports it from the intertidal (Bertsch and Johnson, 1981). It lays a tangled yellow egg string and, like many Aplysia spp, releases purple mucus when disturbed.
Distribution:
Big Island, Maui, Oahu, Kauai and Midway: widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific.
Taxonomic notes:
It's
referred to as the "eyed sea hare" in Hoover, 1998 & 2006. It's
likely that the animal listed as an undetermined form of Tethys in
Edmondson, 1946 was this species.
Photo: CP: 20
mm: found by PF; Maalaea Bay, Maui; April 6, 2005.
Observations and comments:
Note
1: ( )
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