Dwarf sea hare Aplysia parvula
Photos by Keith Scott
Dwarf sea hare - red variety
Dwarf sea hare - green variety
Dwarf sea hare with egg string.
Photos by Guido Zsilavecz
The name "dwarf" may be misleading, as at 7 cm length it is large compared to most other Cape Town nudibranchs. It is, however, a dwarf compared to related species, some of which grow to 40 cm! Larger sea hares do occasionally occur in Cape Town waters, but they are comparatively rare, and have a different appearance to the dwarf sea hare, and can thus be readily distinguished.
The dwarf sea hare is the most common of the locally occuring sea hares, and can be found on most reefs, being abundant at Long Beach, where it inhabits mostly codium beds. There are a few colour variations, the more common ones being a red and an olive-green, but other shades may also appear. The egg case is a highly convoluted string, in orange or pink, sticking to the codium or other algae.
If one looks closely at the sea hare one can just see its eyes, below the "ears" - the rhinophores. These are not very sophisticated eyes, but do allow it to distinguish between dark and light. It feeds on algae.
Nudibranchs of Southern Africa - a guide to the opisthobranch molluscs of southern Africa, T Gosliner, 1987.
Two Oceans, A guide to the marine life of Southern Africa, GM Branch, CL Griffiths, ML Branch and LE Beckley, 1994.