Critter of the Month
Nudibranch
Photo courtesy Sandi Stickland
Nudibranchs
These colorful critters are members of the Gastropods, or sea slugs. They are favorites of photographers because they come in many beautiful colors. It is this coloring that warns off predators that they are not a tasty meal, even though the toxins they carry are not their own. They are able to recycle toxins they eat from their prey, ie posons from slugs or even untriggered nematacyts (stinging cells) from jellyfish.
The name nudibranch translates into "naked gills" (thelatin word " nudus", naked, and the Greek "brankhia", gills). Their secondary gills are on the outside of their bodies and appear as feathery, lacelike tentacles on their backsides Most also carry a pair of horn-like tentacles or "rhinophores" at the front, that are used primarily as sensory organs.
Nudibranchs are hermaphroditic, and thus have a set of reproductive organs for both sexes, but they cannot fertilize themselves.
Nudibranchs typically deposit their eggs within a gelatinous spiral.
Photo courtesy Sandi Strickland
Photo courtesy Sandi Strickland