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Headshield Slug - Leech Aglaja (Mating pair)

^^The money shot. Yeah there are two critters here and they’re doing exactly what it looks like they’re doing.

On a recent dive in Cozumel at Santa Rosa Shallows, my guide pointed down at the sand, and I squealed. This guide knows me well and he knows I love the tiny critters best of all, especially nudibranchs and sea slugs. So he knew that I would be most delightedly preoccupied with these diminutive Headshield Slugs (Chelidonura hirundinina) whilst he attended to another diver.

I found two color variations of the same species:

Headshield Slug – Leech Aglaja
Headshield Slug – Leech Aglaja

 

But, even more exciting, I discovered these two color variations only after the two separated. They are so tiny and my eyeballs are so old that I couldn’t be sure it was actually two sea slugs until the morning after, so to speak.

Headshield Slug – Leech Aglaja (Mating pair)
Headshield Slug – Leech Aglaja (Mating pair)
Headshield Slug – Leech Aglaja (Mating pair)

 

This is not my first time catching a pair of nudibranchs in flagrante delecto, like these Painted Elysia (Thuridilla picta) from a dive in May 2021:

Painted Elyisa (Mating pair)

 

And these Lettuce Slugs (Elyisa crispata) from a dive in January 2022:

Lettuce Slugs (Mating pair)

 

Did not see this coming when I bought my first underwater camera, only a couple years ago…

My mother would be so proud. Not.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Flash

    Fragrante delecto… oh my!!

    1. Bridget Lawler

      😛

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