The full name of these wonderful creatures is mangrove leaf snails (Elysia bangtawaensis). They belong to the sacoglossans, also known as “solar-powered sea slugs”, the only known group of animals capable of photosynthesis. However, they do not do this directly with their bodies. For this, they resort to a clever trick.

animal photosynthesis

Mangrove leaf snails have seven to nine sharp teeth, which they use to pierce algal cells and then suck out anything useful inside. Chloroplasts, the cellular structures that plants use to convert sunlight into sugar during photosynthesis, are among those that enter their bodies in this way. Elysia bangtawaensis does not digest chloroplasts but retains them in its body. Them begins photosynthesis directly in the snail’s body and produces food. They are stored for a relatively long time, which allows animals to not worry about finding new food for two to three months.

Chloroplasts not only produce energy, but also give these slugs a dark, leafy green color (like the fallen leaves of mangrove trees). This helps mangrove slugs blend in with their surroundings and remain undetected by potential predators such as crustaceans and birds as they rest in shaded pools among mangrove trees.

After a few months, the snails turn yellowish as the chloroplasts begin to shrink. Right now they need to replace their photosynthetic machinery with a new portion of algae. After eating, the snails regain a leafy green color.

Another remarkable A feature of these animals is that they are hermaphrodites, that is, each snail has sexual organs of both sexes.. For breeding, two snails are tightly “hugged”.

Nick Volpe, the author of the photo, writes on Facebook that mangrove slugs are “extremely ephemeral”: “hundreds of them appear in the mangrove swamp for a short time, and then none are seen again for decades.” It was first discovered in 2016 in a place that had been explored for decades and not a single person had been found. So it is likely that there are certain cycles in their lives, like cicadas.