Error message
Unable to fetch location details at this time.
Hooded Nudibranch
Melibe leonina
47.8106, -122.377
Field Notes
Description:
This amazing Nudibranch is also known as Lion's mane nudibranch, it is a species of predatory sea slug, specifically a nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Tethydidae.
Habitat:
Found on eelgrass and other seaweeds near low tide and below, and in kelp forest in deeper water.
Notes:
They are carnivorous and hunts for food, while attached to grasses, by extending its oral hood out and downward like a net. When the ventral surface of the hood contacts a small animal, the hood rapidly closes and the fringing tentacles overlap, holding in the prey then forcing the whole animal into the mouth. Prey include amphipods, copepods, mysids, other small crustaceans, small mollusks, small jellyfish and ctenophores, larvae of other invertebrates and in some cases small fish.
Comments (43)