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iNat·47801superorderMollusca44,172 field observations
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Sacoglossans
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Sacoglossans

Sacoglossa

Sacoglossa is a superorder of small sea slugs and sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks, belonging to the clade Heterobranchia, whose members are known as sacoglossans. There are 284 valid species recognized within this superorder. Sacoglossans live by ingesting the cellular contents of algae, hence they are sometimes called "sap-sucking sea slugs". Some sacoglossans simply digest the fluid which they suck from the algae, but in some other species, the slugs sequester and use within their own tissues living chloroplasts from the algae they eat, a very unusual phenomenon known as kleptoplasty, for the "stolen" plastids. This earns them the title of the "solar-powered sea slugs", and makes them unique among metazoan organisms, for otherwise kleptoplasty is known only among other euthyneurans and single-celled protists.

The Sacoglossa are divided into two clades - the shelled families (Oxynoacea) and the shell-less families (Plakobranchacea).

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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Every page naming Sacoglossa in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 47801.