Aplysia juliana Quoy and Gaimard, 1832

Araya, Juan Francisco, 2015, Current status of the non-indigenous molluscs in Chile, with the first record of Otala punctata (Müller, 1774) (Gastropoda: Helicidae) in the country and new records for Cornu aspersum (Müller, 1774) and Deroceras laeve (Müller, 1774), Journal of Natural History 49 (29), pp. 1731-1761 : 1738-1739

Aplysia juliana Quoy and Gaimard, 1832

Description

Marcus (1955).

Distribution

Circumtropical; eastern and western Atlantic ( Marcus 1955) as well as the Indian and Pacific Oceans ( Kay 1964), in shallow marine habitats. In Chile this species has been recorded in Iquique (20°11 ʹ S, 70°08 ʹ W), Antofagasta (23°38 ʹ S, 70°24 ʹ W) and Taltal (25°24 ʹ S, 70°29 ʹ W) ( Castilla et al. 2005). This species was found for the first time in Antofagasta in 1982 ( Tomicic 1985), associated with ENSO events.

Possible mechanism of introduction/Status

Associated with ENSO events/unestablished ( Castilla et al. 2005).

Remarks

This is a large herbivorous marine slug, feeding almost exclusively on the alga Ulva lactuca ( Frings and Frings 1965) . UA, SA.