Sunday, 18 June 2017

Steve's Nature Quiz #12

How many Spotted Sea Hares can you see in this picture?


Sea Hares are a type of Sea Slug and are molluscs like the slugs and snails in your garden. They are called Sea Hares because of their large, hare-like 'ears'. They are not ears at all in fact but act more like noses. When Sea Hares want to make more Sea Hares they form mating chains and advertise the fact by sending out pheromones which other sea hares pick up through these chemosensory organs called rhinopores. As things can be a bit confusing in a mating chain sometimes the best way to determine the number of Sea hares in a chain is to count the rhinopores and divide by two!

I think that I can see ten rhinopores in this picture which makes five Sea Hares. Maybe you can see more?

Taken from this week's #CreteNature Blog:  Triton's Trumpet and Mermaids' Wine Glasses
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