Ascobulla ulla (Er. Marcus and Ev. Marcus, 1970)
This sea slug does not retain photosynthetically active chloroplasts, but digests them.
In 1982, the Western Society of Malacology reported that Dr. Eveline Marcus synonomized this species with Ascobulla californica (from the Gulf of California) and A. japonica (from Japan) (Annual Report- Western Society of Malacology, p. 13).
Species of Ascobulla typically live under the sand and feed on the rhizomes of Caulerpa spp. In the Bahamas and Florida, A. ulla has been found associated with the rhizomes of C. racemosa and C. cupressoides.
The type locality is East of Santos, Brazil. Their distribution includes Florida (Jensen, 1981) and the Bahamas.
Clark, K.B., Jensen, K.R., and H. M. Stirts. 1990. Survey of functional kleptoplasty among west Atlantic Ascoglossa (=Sacoglossa) (Mollusca: Opithsobranchia). The Veliger 33(4): 339-345.
Evertsen, J., Burghardt, I. and G. Johnsen. 2007. Retention of functional chloroplasts in some sacoglossans from the Indo-Pacific and Mediterranean. Mar. Biol. 151: 2159-2166.
Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2010. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 15 April 2010.
Jensen, K.R. 1981. OBSERVATIONS ON FEEDING METHODS IN SOME FLORIDA ASCOGLOSSANS. Journal of Molluscan Studies 47(2): 190-199.