Τhe depilatory sea hare

Description:

Aplysia depilans, the "depilatory sea hare", is a species of sea hare or sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Aplysiidae. This sea hare occurs in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It can be found mostly in shallow water of about 1.5 to 10 m. It avoids the intertidal zone because the animals cannot absorb atmospheric oxygen and so die after stranding relatively quickly. Occasionally some are trapped in tide pools at low tide. The adults feed primarily on algae of the genus Ulva, especially sea lettuce Ulva lactuca. During the planktonic phase of life they eat single-celled phytoplankton. Several depilatory sea hares were spotted washed ashore, in Tolo beach, in the Argolic Gulf, off the east coast of the Peloponnese, Greece.