Meeting Abstract
Sacoglossans sea slugs are a group of shell-less marine gastropods. They are typically specialist herbivores living in close association with their algal food source. Several species of sacoglossan display kleptoplasty, the ability to photosynthesize using plastids sequestered from their algal food. While many small species live directly on their food and may use that as a form of crypsis, larger kleptoplastic species are often found to not be spatially associated with their algal food and thus may be at risk for predation. These larger non-cryptic species likely have other mechanisms to prevent predation such as chemical defenses. The sacoglossan sea slugs Elysia clarki and E. chlorotica were exposed to predators in the laboratory. Naive predators initially attempted to consume the slugs, although no slugs were completely consumed. Additional exposure caused predators to ignore or avoid the slugs altogether. This suggests that these sacoglossan species possess some means of chemical defense either acquired through their diet or directly synthesized by the animal.
