Sacoglossa
Sacoglossa, commonly known as the sacoglossans or the "solar-powered sea slugs", are a superorder of small sea slugs and sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks that belong to the clade Heterobranchia. Sacoglossans live by ingesting the cellular contents of algae, hence they are sometimes called "sap-sucking sea slugs".
| Sacoglossa Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Elysia crispata, a shell-less species in the family Placobranchidae | |
| Oxynoe viridis, a shelled sacoglossan in the family Oxynoidae | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
| Infraclass: | Euthyneura |
| Superorder: | Sacoglossa H. von Ihering, 1876 |
| Diversity | |
| 284 species | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Ascoglossa Bergh, 1876 | |
Some sacoglossans simply digest the fluid which they suck from the algae, but in some other species, the slugs sequester and use within their own tissues living chloroplasts from the algae they eat, a very unusual phenomenon known as kleptoplasty, for the "stolen" plastids. This earns them the title of the "solar-powered sea slugs", and makes them unique among metazoan organisms, for otherwise kleptoplasty is known only among single-celled protists.
The Sacoglossa are divided into two clades - the shelled families (Oxynoacea) and the shell-less families (Plakobranchacea). The four families of shelled species are Cylindrobullidae, Volvatellidae, Oxynoidae, and Juliidae, the bivalved gastropods. The shell-less Plakobranchacea are grouped in six families, divided between two clades ("superfamilies"), the Plakobranchoidea and the Limapontioidea. All sacoglossans are distinguished from related groups by the presence of a single row of teeth on the radula. The teeth are adapted for the suctorial feeding habits of the group.
Kathe R. Jensen (2007) recognized 284 valid species within the Sacoglossa.