Warren Currie 🦠🦐Mar 16, 2024

Weekend #Plankton #Factoid 🦐🦠
Slug news! Blue Sea Dragons (Glaucus atlanticus) are #Nudibranchs, a soft gastropod "sea slug", which as neuston #zooplankton, float at the water surface. Their extended cerata fingers are used to swim and capture prey.

Beautiful, but don't touch these dragons because they eat floating siphonophores like Portuguese man o' war and concentrate their stinging #nematocysts into sacs, which they deploy if disturbed into a *very nasty sting!
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240313-blue-sea-dragons-texas-beaches-spring-break-sting

Rarely seen 'blue dragons' are disrupting spring breakers' beach plans

The beautiful 'blue dragons' sweeping beaches look like magical Pokemon – but experts warn travellers to stay away.

BBC
CellBioNewsFeb 24, 2023

Single #gene causes #stinging #cell to lose its sting.

#cniderians #Nematostella #NvSox2 #nematocysts #CRISPR

https://phys.org/news/2023-02-gene-cell.html

Single gene causes stinging cell to lose its sting

When scientists disabled a single regulatory gene in a species of sea anemone, a stinging cell that shoots a venomous miniature harpoon for hunting and self-defense shifted to shoot a sticky thread that entangles prey instead, according to a new study.

Phys.org
Andrea YoungNov 25, 2022
The underside of an opalescent nudibranch. A fascinating and colorful type of sea slug common to Puget Sound waters #nudibranch #SeaSlug #opalescent #nematocysts #cerrata #PugetSound #LowTide
Dr Ian McCormickNov 21, 2022

Blue dragon - glaucus atlanticus

"Also known as #Sea Swallow, Blue Glaucus, Blue Sea Slug, Blue #Ocean #Slug and Lizard Nudibranch. Washed ashore at Bronte Beach, #Sydney, NSW. Diet: Bluebottle (physalia physalis) Speciality: Stores stinging #nematocysts from the bluebottle within its own tissues, which is additional protection from predation Discovered: 1777, Forster."
#art #nature #photography

Image: Sylke Rohrlach from Sydney. https://flic.kr/p/e6SoyN

Blue dragon-glaucus atlanticus

Flickr