What is Melanochlamys Droupadi

It is a new marine species of head-shield sea slug with ruby red spot.

This species belonging to Melanochlamys genus was discovered from Digha of West Bengal coast and Udaipur of Odisha coast.

Features:

It is a small invertebrate with a maximum length of up to 7 mm. Habitat: It inhabits wet and soft sandy beaches.

It is brownish black in colour with a ruby red spot in the hind end.

This particular species of sea slug is hermaphrodite (having both male and female reproductive parts); however, they need another sea slug for reproduction.

It has a shell inside the body. It has a posterior, accounting for 61 percent of its body length.

It continuously secretes transparent mucus to form a sheath that prevents sand grains from entering parapodial space.

It crawls beneath smooth sand to form a moving capsule where the body is rarely visible, leaving behind a trail like a turtle.

What are Sea Slugs?

Sea slugs are a group of molluscs that live primarily in marine habitats and are slug- like.

They can be found from the shallow intertidal to the deep sea and from the polar regions to the tropics.