Sacoglossa, commonly known as the sacoglossans or the "solar-powered sea slugs", are a superorder of small sea slugs and sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks that belong to the clade Heterobranchia. Sacoglossans live by ingesting the cellular contents of algae, hence they are sometimes called "sap-sucking sea slugs".[4]
Some sacoglossans simply digest the fluid which they suck from the algae, but in some other species, the slugs sequester and use within their own tissues living chloroplasts from the algae they eat, a very unusual phenomenon known as kleptoplasty, for the "stolen" plastids.[5] This earns them the title of the "solar-powered sea slugs", and makes them unique among metazoan organisms, for otherwise kleptoplasty is known only among single-celled protists.[6]
The Sacoglossa are divided into two clades - the shelled families (Oxynoacea) and the shell-less families (Plakobranchacea).[7]The four families of shelled species are: Cylindrobullidae, Volvatellidae, Oxynoidae, and Juliidae, the bivalved gastropods. The shell-less Plakobranchacea are grouped in six families, divided between two clades ("superfamilies"), the Plakobranchoidea and the Limapontioidea. All sacoglossans are distinguished from related groups by the presence of a single row of teeth on the radula. The teeth are adapted for the suctorial feeding habits of the group.[8]
Many of these gastropods (e.g. Elysia spp.) resemble winged slugs with a pair of cephalic tentacles. In photosynthetic members of the group, the wings, or parapodia, can be unfurled to maximise the area of the organism that is struck by sunlight.[9] In others (e.g. Placida spp.), cylindrical cerata extend from the dorsal surface. The majority of sacoglossans are 1-3 cm in length; they are typically uniform in color because the chloroplasts they ingest end up installed in their own cells.[1]
Sacoglossa species are found worldwide in tropical and temperate oceans, but most live in the central Pacific Ocean, where they frequent the shorelines of tropical islands; diverse tracts of species are also known in the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific. These three areas have distinct ranges of species, indicating a high degree of biogeographic separation. Where sacoglossans are present further from the equator, in places such as Australia or Japan, diversity is lower, and the species present are typically tropical species that have a higher tolerance for temperature variation. Their temperate distribution closely corresponds to the distribution of their important food source, Caulerpa spp.[3] They typically live at very low population densities, making scientific study of the group difficult.[1]