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Sneaky Slugs
PICKY EATER: This Cratena peregrina prefers to eat creatures with full stomachs.
A type of brightly colored sea slug has a clever trick to get two meals for the price of one. Cratena peregrina is a species of nudibranch found in the Mediterranean Sea that likes to eat tiny sea creatures called hydroids. But according to scientists, C. peregrina prefers hydroids that have themselves just eaten plankton. Eating a stuffed hydroid is like getting a double helping of supper.
Researchers call the newly discovered feeding behavior kleptopredation, from the Greek word for thief. “We are now asking whether the phenomenon of kleptopredation is found in other marine species,” says Trevor Willis, a marine biologist at the University of Portsmouth in England.
Sea slugs, or nudibranchs, are known for their brilliant colors and wild shapes. More than 3,000 species of sea slugs are known to exist, and scientists believe there may be 3,000 more yet to be discovered.
The Spanish Dancer, or Hexabranchus sanguineus, swims away from predators in a wild dancing motion.
The dragonlike Glaucus atlanticus uses stinging cells from the jellyfish it eats to attack predators.
The Melibe leonina exudes a sweet, fruity smell. A group of them is called a “bouquet.”