Blue Nudibranch
Glaucus marginatus
-26.5544, 153.099
Field Notes
Description:
Tiny blue nudibranch with a 'wingspan' of under 1cm. The blue colours are actually on the ventral surface, as these creatures float upside down in the ocean using the 'foot' along the centre of their belly to hold the surface tension.
Habitat:
The Pacific Ocean. We found this one washed up on Yaroomba beach.
Notes:
Not a great deal seems to be known about these tiny sea slugs, except that they eat bits of hydrozoans such as Portuguese Men o' War (blue bottles) and Porpita porpita (blue buttons) and store the stingers in their 'cereta' (the finger-like protusions along the side of their body). I think they're really cute. This series shows one in a variety of poses... in the second one you can see how small it is (check out the grains of sand around it on the surface of the water!) and the fourth one shows it flipped onto its front as the water goes out.
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