Cyerce antillensis Engel, 1927
The body of this slug is usually greenish in color but sometimes may be yellow. There is often white pigmentation on the dorsal surface of the body and sometimes there can be a brownish pattern on the head. The cerata are usually transparent with some scattered white spots. There is often a dark spot in the midline of the ceras near the tip (Valdés et al., Caribbean Sea Slugs, 2006).
This sea slug retains photosynthetically active chloroplasts (kleptoplasty) for less than 12 hours from Cladophora prolifera, the algae on which it feeds (Clark et al., 1990).
Eats Cladophora prolifera, Penicillus predominantly (e.g. P. dumetosus), Halimeda tuna, and (in the laboratory) Udotea flabellum (Jensen, 1981).
The type locality is the West Indies. This species is also found in waters off Panama (Valdés, pers. communication) and Florida (Jensen, 1981).
AlgaeBase as: Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2010. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org
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.
Jensen, K.R. 1981. Observations on feeding methods in some Florida ascoglossans. Journal of Molluscan Studies 47(2): 190-199.
Valdés, Angel, Jeff Hammon, David Behrens, and Anne Dupont. 2006. Caribbean Sea Slugs. Sea Challengers Natural History Books. 289 pp.