Occurrence of Mottled Sea Hare, Aplysia fasciata Poiret, 1789 from Pulicat Lake, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

A literature survey on the species Aplysia brasiliana limits its distribution to the Western Atlantic from New Jersey to Brazil and in the Eastern Atlantic including the Mediterranean and the West African coast. Some authors have reported the species Aplysia brasiliana, present in the Atlantic coast of the Americas, to be a synonym of Aplysia fasciata with different colour pattern. It is a benthic herbivore that grazes on the tidal and subtidal zones of sea weeds or sea grass of tropical waters in the Indo-Pacific Ocean region. There are more than 50 species of Aplysia distributed worldwide and reside in the tidal and sub tidal zones, However, many researchers have reported the other related species belonging to opisthobranch fauna of India. Sethi et al., reported the sea slug, Kalinga ornata from the inshore waters of Bay of Bengal along Chennai coast6. Report on new record of the black-margined nudibranch, Doriprismatica atromarginata (Cuvier, 1804) from the inshore waters of Bay of Bengal along Karaikal Coast7 and Occurrences of Wedge Sea Hare, Dolabella auricularia (Lightfoot, 1786) from Kayalpatinam , Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu, India have also been reported8 . New occurrences of Sidegilled Slugs, Pleurobranchus mamillatus, Quoy & Gaimard, 1832 off Tuticorin Coast, Tamil Nadu, India; First record of Ragged Sea Hare, Bursatella leachii Blainville, 1817 (Opisthobranchia: Euopisthobranchia: Aplysiidae) in Pulicat Lake, East Coast of India; Occurrences and distribution of Geographic Sea Hare, Syphonota geographica, Adams & Reever, 1850 in Pulicat Lake, TN; Occurrence of Nudibranch [Dendrodoris atromaculata (Alder and Hancock, 1864)] from the Pulicat Lake along Bay of Bengal, India11. Kumar, et al., reported Aplysia species from Thondi, Gulf of mannar, Bay of Bengal, Tamil Nadu. Sneha et al, (2016) Report of Aplysia argus (Ruppell & Leuckart,1830) (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia: Aplysiidae) from Lakshadeep, with notes on its Taxonomy in India. The present finding is the first record of live form of the Sea are from Pulicate Lake along Coromandal Coast of Bay of Bengal, India