Gastropod dessert

I've often wondered why snails are a delicacy, but the idea of eating slugs is gross. Why isn't the banana slug sliming along the moss in that picture just as delicious as a plate of escargot drenched in garlic butter and herbs?

Well, actually, that particular banana slug IS edible. There's a hint in this shot:

Don't feel bad for that little guy because of the stick coming out of his far end. It's there because that's the new Banana Slug Sucker from our friends at Archie McPhee. Banana flavored, of course, and guaranteed not to produce any more slime than you usually get when licking a lollipop. I haven't tried one myself yet, but somehow I feel entirely confident that it is more delicious than this:

If you hurry up and order, maybe you can even have one for Valentine's Day instead of boring non-mollusk-shaped chocolate.

Your friend on the ugly animal/confectionery news beat,
-Wombat (No Relation)

Sugar- and stick-free banana slugs by Flickr user Such a Groke

Invasion of the Slime Monsters

As a lover of the ugly, I am rather fond of snails and slugs. As long as you don't mind that they are slimy, boneless, eyeless, ruin the garden and infest your fishtank, what's not to love?

Well now I know what's not to love after reading in the Wall Street Journal about the GIANT AFRICAN LAND SNAIL INVASION OF FLORIDA!!!

Not everyone sees these snails as a menace. Some keep them as pets, like Flickr user VenturaB. who took the reasonably attractive photo above. What you can't tell from that photo is exactly how HUGE they are:


They seem to have included that quarter for scale, but really, isn't the guy's arm indication enough?

Of course, just being big isn't so horrible. Here's what's so horrible: they "chew through plants, plaster and stucco, and sometimes carry a parasite that can infect humans with a nonlethal strain of meningitis," and "they eat so ravenously that they leave trails of excrement on walls and the ground."

There's an effort in progress to eradicate these enormous non-native gastropods, but it's no easy battle, since they reportedly can lay 1,200 eggs a year. Another less than encouraging fact: this isn't their first invasion. They were first introduced in the 1960s and were wiped out after a decade of effort in a campaign that cost a million dollars.

Wish the warriors luck, because innocent bystanders can't take much more. One woman quoted in the Wall Street Journal story was so disturbed at the sight of a mere five-inch specimen (they can grow to eight inches long) that she had to go lie down with a migraine, and, her husband said, "She's so panicked that she doesn't want to go out anymore."

-Wombat (No Relation)

Tackiness at sea, ahoy!

Cuttlefish are totally cool. They can change the color and even the texture of their skin, using the patterns to communicate with one another and to disguise themselves.

They're obviously not conventionally attractive if you think an animal is supposed to be cute and furry, but I've never thought of them as ugly until I saw this species on a Japanese television show. It's the Flamboyant Cuttlefish, and it seems to favor clashing combinations and tasteless colors like magenta. And get a load of all the crazy bits sticking out, rather than the discreet little bumps and ridges on the skin of more familiar species:


You can check out a bunch more photos of this species and its relatives here. Just don't go there for fashion advice, OK?

Your appalled friend,
-Wombat (No Relation)

Happy Banana Slug Day!

The city of Santa Cruz, California, has declared today Official Day of the UCSC Banana Slug, in honor of the ugliest, slimiest creature ever chosen as a college sports mascot.

The banana slug has been the official mascot for the teams of the University of California at Santa Cruz for 25 years, ever since determined ugly animal lovers won their campaign against the boring alternative, the sea lion. Read about it at the official website here, including a link to a song written in the slug's honor. And you can buy t-shirts and other slug gifts at their online store. They even sell plush slugs, which seems wrong somehow, but it's nice that there's apparently no end to their enthusiasm.

Bonelessly,
-Wombat (No Relation)

Cupid's slimy darts

There's an excellent slideshow at The Guardian of new species discovered in 2010, quite of a few of which are admirably ugly.

Here's one in particular that we definitely shouldn't have missed. Reports of this long-tailed slug from Borneo at first make it sound kind of cute. It supposedly likes to wrap its long tail around itself while resting. Don't you wish they had taken a picture of that? Doesn't it sound sort of adorable?

That's before you read on and discover that the mating behavior of this slug should probably be featured on my other blog. Courtship involves harpoon-like "love darts" made of calcium carbonate which are used to pierce a mate and inject a hormone. Nasty behavior indeed!

Your shocked and disgusted friend,
-Wombat (No Relation)

Marine Life Census, Part 2

As promised, I've got another collection of creatures from the census of marine life for you. Let's start with the aptly-named Terrible Claw Lobster, Dinochelus ausubeli. It should be obvious where the name comes from

Next up, we have an as-yet unnamed snail, found on a submarine volcano off Japan.

We also have a jellyfish, Bathykorus bouilloni, that appears to have gotten his appearance from Star Wars, judging from his Vader-like shape.

Next, is the Bearded Fireworm. Those bristles are venomous, causing an "intense burning irritation". Don't touch.

And last up, here's another plankton-sized baby for you, this time for the Slipper Lobster. While he's transparent now, when he grows, he will have a full shell.

Pictures courtesy of National Geographic

The Marine Life Census

Earlier this year, scientists wrapped up a massive, ten-year survey of aquatic life. This survey revealed a large number of new species. As anyone who visits here regularly knows, quite a few of them are not on the attractive side. We start with one that confused the researchers so much on what to call it, that they finally settled on the simple squidworm:

Next up is Venus flytrap anemone. Unlike its counterparts on land, it has stinging tentacles which it uses to trap its prey.

Now, we have a jellyfish, Atolla wyvillei, which has an interesting way of defending from predators. When attacked, the jellyfish lights up to attract a larger creature to eat its attacker.

Today we also have a sea slug, Phyllidia ocellata. As you might guess from the coloration, this guy's poisonous, and probably not a good meal for anyone passing by.

To wrap up the day, here's a newly hatched anglerfish. At this stage in his life, all he can really do is drift around with the plankton.

That wraps up this todays installment from the census. There's plenty more where they came from, and I can probably stretch a few more posts out of it for you.

Pictures courtesy of National Geographic.

RIP Paul, the Psychic Octopus

Today, I inform you of the passing of Paul, the Psychic Octopus. Paul is believed to have hatched in January 2008, and died last week, on October 26, 2010.

Paul was a common octopus residing in an aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany. For those of you who hadn't heard, Paul achieved international fame after correctly picking the winners of 8 games (out of 8 that he chose for, giving him a perfect record) in the 2010 World Cup. To get his predictions, the trainers placed a piece of food in each of two clear plastic boxes, each of which was marked with the flag of one of the teams in the match. Whichever box Paul opened first, and ate the contents of, was the predicted winner (as seen below, when he predicted Spain's win over Germany). The odds of successfully picking the winner 8 times straight is estimated at 256 to 1. At the conclusion of the World Cup, Paul went into retirement, although he did receive an ambassadorship from England for it's 2018 bid.

As a result of his success, Paul became the most famous octopus in... OK, I can't think of another famous octopus. Any ideas?

Images courtesy of Wikipedia

Green Sea Slug Discovery

Photo source: Nicholas E. Curtis and Ray Martinez via Wired.com

The slug has brought us something never seen before in nature: a creature that is both animal and plant.

Researchers, spear-headed by Sidney K. Pierce of the University of South Florida in Tampa, have recently discovered that the green sea slug (Elysia chlorotica) is able to hijack complete chloroplasts from the algae it dines on and use them to photosynthesize. After only a few meals on algae, a slug is able to co-opt the genetic material of its algal dinner and never have to eat again. Sunbathing suffices.

This has never been seen before in the animal kingdom.

Swapping genetic material among microbes is common place. But this is something new. It's different from how corals are able to benefit from photosynthesis. With corals, they host entire photosynthesizing organisms and consume the product. But this slug has skipped the middle man and gone straight to the source. Moreover, it looks like they are able to make their own chlorophyll. Even juvenile slugs that have never eaten algae have algal photosynthetic genes in their DNA, suggesting that they are able to supply their chloroplasts with chlorophyll and never have to eat algae -- or anything -- again.

Maybe science could one day provide me with my own chloroplasts that craft lasagna and hamburgers for me. I'd lay in a tanning booth for that.

Camouflaged Spread

Jaden sent us this link from ThisBlogRules.com. Enjoy this spread of camouflaged creatures, including a crab spider, a scorpion fish, a stone fish, and an orchid mantis. Thanks, Jaden.

Lot O' Slug

You're not looking at some screenshots from a poor man's version of The Abyss. You're looking at photos taken by Rachel and her fiance while on vacation at Marco Island, FL.

Rachel's best guess, and mine too, is that this beast (there were two of them) is a sea hare (a type of marine slug). If this guess is right, then these creatures (or their kin) might have the potential of reaching upwards of 4.4 lbs and two and a half feet in length. That makes them arguably the world's largest slug (a title they've stolen from an uncle of mine). That's a lot o' slug.

Thanks Rachel and fiance.

Bulbous Slug

Nudibranchs are some of my favorite creatures. These marine slugs seem almost ethereal as they flow across ocean surfaces. Below is an undescribed Eubranchus sp. (found near a river area in Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia).

See those two bulbs (cerrata) with the pink caps and white stringy innards? Those strings are

digestive glands, and the slug is most likely eating the hydroid upon which it is treading. My own digestive glands are currently working on some leftover general chicken and vegetable chow mein.

Thanks for the slug, Jelo.

Photo source: Alfred Jakoblich via Slugsite.us

Behold the Piglet Squid

The piglet squid is actually adorable, so it has no right to be here. But, it is a mollusk, and mollusks should always feel welcome at Ugly Overload.

Like so many squids, it's hard for me to find much information on the piglet. They get to be about 10 cm in mantle length (the cylindrical portion of their body), and they sport their legs above their eyes. That's right, they've broken the mold. They don't do the squid thing like anyone else, no, not the piglet. How's that for outside-the-box-thinking?

The next time my boss has an all-staff meeting to motivate us and encourage us toward innovation, I'll be sure to mention this guy.

Thanks for the new squid, Jelo.

Grateful Terrestrials

David has sent us a link to a Washington Post picture gallery of creatures recently surveyed in the Deep Sea. I bring you a few of them, just in case you weren't already grateful for being a terrestrial, sentient biped who doesn't have to share your personal space with these creatures. These photos are of a copepod, a cute dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis discoveryi), a new dumbo (Grimpoteuthis sp.), and a Neocyema (erythrosoma). Guess which two of them are known to feast on human souls.

Thanks for the link, David.

Cuttlefish Looks

What I love about cuttlefish is that no two shots of them are ever the same--they're so mercurial. They're considered to be among the most intelligent of invertebrates, and the Romans used their ink as a pigment, calling it sepia (guess what color the ink is).

Perhaps you've heard of cuttlebones, especially if you give them to your birds as a calcium source. Those cuttlebones provide the internal structure for the cuttlefish. They're made of porous argonite, and the mollusks manipulate the gas-to-liquid ratio within the bone's chambers to control their buoyancy.






















Ever wonder how they change their appearance so well? They've got 200 specialized pigment cells per square millimeter. Those cells are a marvel of biological engineering, as are their eyes, which are among the most advanced on the planet. And their blood isn't red, it's blue-green. So much to say about the cuttlefish, and yet they only live for about two years.

Mating Mollusks

All you children should turn away. Parents, send them from the room. Clicking this video will give you a David Attenborough narration of leopard slugs mating. And it's graphic! Whew, the camera doesn't miss a moment. It's almost...artistic. There's an awful lot of bending and twisting and sliding. And slime. Oodles of slime.

Thanks, Moneca.

Ingratitude

My kids are big fans of Cheerios. When I present them with a fresh bowl of them, their eye stalks don't droop in disappointment like the Giant African Land Snail below.

This snail could learn a lesson or two (and a handy resistance to salt) from my kids. Ingrate.

Slugs Galore

I've been remiss in getting my posts out on time. I've been a busy little monkey, and the uglies have been neglected. But you'll be seeing catch-up posts rolling out very soon (like today). To compensate for my tardiness, here's a smorgasbord of slugs, myriad mollusks of the land-dwelling, shell-less variety.

Slugs come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors, and this post is a tribute to them. The whole shell-less thing has developed independently at a variety of times and in a variety of locations. So, though these slugs all look very similar in shape, they are not nearly as related as you might think.

First we have a Carpathian blue slug (Bielzia coerulans). You'll also see some banana slugs, and in the end, two photos of hermaphroditic slugs who should have had the decency to find a room.

Photo source: Gábor Kovács





















Photo source: Andy Hay





















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Photo source: Per Ola




















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Photo source: Christopher, Tania, and Isabelle