Baby Elysia, about three weeks old. Rhinophores well developed, diverticula full of chloroplasts from Bryopsis plumosa. 8/17/18

It seems appropriate that the site has reached an age at which kids are always asking “why, why, why?”

Looking back, the site is absolutely a reflection of my working style: make a rough plan, give it a shot, modify, repeat.  Not the work of a perfectionist, and there are some posts and pages that make me cringe when I look back.  Nonetheless, as a repository of pictures, information, and ideas, and a journal of my meandering process of discovery, the Solar Sea Slug Blog has exceeded expectations.

The past twelve months have been action-packed:

• The student Slug Club at USG explored chemical ecology.  We spent fall semester doing a deep dive into the literature on Sacoglossan chemical ecology, learning a lot about the chemicals the slugs could be taking from food plants.  In spring semester, we took the ideas into the lab by testing whether mucus and tissue from E. clarki could keep shrimp from eating food cubes.
• The experiments could not have been done without the availability of many slugs of different sizes. This leads into what was probably the most important breakthrough of the past year: rearing slugs from egg to adult.  Over the years, the slugs have laid thousands of eggs, most of which hatched and then starved.  This year, I discovered that the hatchlings will readily eat Bryopsis plumosa, and have ended up overwhelmed by babies.  Knowing how to rear the hatchlings, and having a culture of B. plumosa on hand, is a huge leap forward.  Now I can raise them as needed, at least in principle.
• The breakthrough in rearing of Elysia would not have happened with input from Skip Pierce and Mike Middlebrooks in Tampa.  I had a great visit down there, and learned a ton about several species and the people who work on them.  As a bonus, I brought back my first culture of B. plumosa to get the baby slugs started.
• We rediscovered a classic paper on Elysia neuroanatomy, recorded the the first action potentials in Elysia neurons.  There is still some work to be done to get routine, stable recordings, but this is another big step in the right direction.
• All the stuff that happened in Bahia made for a great summer for the Solar Sea Slug Blog.  We set up a lab, collected slugs and algae, did surveys, tested feeding methods, and obtained some useful DNA sequences from E. diomedea and their food algae.  Stay tuned for the results of the feeding tests in the bay, and a map of where E. diomedea is found in the bay.

Self-indulgent reflections are not as interesting as sea slugs, so I have included some links to cool stuff below:

• A National Geographic article about the potential decline of Elysia chlorotica, possibly the most solar of the solar sea slugs.  Thanks to Ric DeSantiago for forwarding the link.
• Here’s another on theft of stinging nematocysts by cute little nudibranchs.  Thanks to Drew Talley.
• Because I like seahorses, especially small ones, here is a story about newly-described pygmy seahorses in Japan.  Thanks to Joanna.