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Photo copyright Tim Nicholson, whose underwater photographs and photo books are available from http://www.photoboxgallery.com/timnicholson.
Sea Hares, Aplysia punctata
Taken on Bowes Rock off the Isle of Man
The sea hare has flaps of tissue on its back, thought to look like the ears of a hare. Herbivorous, the type of seaweed they eat may affect their colour - either red, brown or green. The above specimens have thus probably been eating red seaweeds. Like all sea slugs, the sea hare is a hermaphrodite. Unusually, though, any sea hare can fertilise any other. Several sea hares can form a mating chanin where each behaves as a male to the one below it, and a female to the one above.
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