Aplysia californica
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" align="right" cellpading="2" style="margin-left: 0.5em"\n|-\n! bgcolor=pink | California Sea Hare\n|-\n| align="center" |
\n|-\n! bgcolor=pink | \n|-\n|\n{| align="center"\n|-\n| :\n|
Animalia\n|-\n| :\n|
Mollusca\n|-\n| :\n|
Gastropoda\n|-\n| :\n|
Opisthobranchia\n|-\n| :\n|
Anaspidea\n|-\n| :\n| Aplysioidea \n|-\n| :\n|
Aplysiidae\n|-\n| :\n|
Aplysia\n|-\n| :\n|
californica\n|}\n|-\n! bgcolor="pink" |
Binomial name\n|-\n| align="center" |
Aplysia californica\n
J. G. Cooper, 1863\n|}
Aplysia californica (also
California sea hare or
California sea slug) is a species of
sea hare which belongs to the
class Gastropoda in the
phylum Mollusca.
It is a very large sea hare, growing to a recorded length of 75
cm. But most are smaller.
The California sea hare is
herbivorous. Its diet consists primarily of red and brown
seaweed, which gives the animal its typically dark coloration.
Life cycle
Like all sea hares, the California sea hare is hermaphroditic, acting as male and female simultaneously, even during mating. The eggs are yellow, but after 8 to 9 days change into a brown color before hatching into larvae. When this annual animal is laying eggs, it has reached the end of its life. Its lifetime depends somewhat on the temperature of the water: 14-25 degrees Celsius is best, but a somewhat cooler temperature delays spawning and extends its life somewhat.
Laboratory use
Aplysia californica has become a valuable laboratory animal, used in studies of the neurobiology of learning and memory. Its ubiquity in synaptic plasticity studies can be attributed to its simple nervous system, consisting of just a few thousand large, easily-identified neurons. Despite its seemingly simple nervous system, however, Aplysia californica is capable of a variety of non-associative and associative learning tasks, including sensitization, habituation, classical, and operant conditioning. Study typically involves a reduced preparation of the gill and siphon withdrawal reflex.
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