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Stylocheilus striatus

Pātito

Lined Seahare

Multimedia & Additional Resources

Type	Description	Download
Image:	Adult (1), Rarotonga	65KB
Image:	Adult, Rarotonga	56KB

General Information

COMMON NAMES: Lined Seahare

TRADITIONAL NAMES: Pātito (RR), Patito (MG MK MT AK)

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE circumtropical, incl. Cooks - French Polynesia, Hawai‘i

COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; Marine, near-shore, reef-flat on blue-green algae

SIGNIFICANCE LIST: Food

KEY FEATURES: To 7cm. Seaslug with translucent body with patches of greens, browns and white, with small eye-spots with pink or blue centres; fine dark stripes and lines; and often with many, branched papillae. Tail is up to 30% body length. EJECT purple ink when disturbed. FEEDS on cyanobacteria (=blue-green algae), especially Lyngbya majuscula. [after seaslugforum.net]

SIMILAR SPECIES: Stylocheilus longacauda has tail around 50% BL (vs ~30%); background colour uniform yellow or green (vs patchy green, brown and white); and papillae sparse and seldom branched (vs common and mainly branched).

Enlarged Image of 'Stylocheilus striatus'

Cook Islands Distribution

View Distribution Map

Southern Group: Present Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
	P			X

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-

Key to Symbols

blank	no data
-	absent	L	localised
X	extinct 'naturally'	W	widespread
XQi	quarantine intercepted	R	recent
XQe	eradicated	?	query preceding category
P	present	T?	taxonomic query
S	seasonal	nn	present, said to have no name
O	occasional	?1	present, name not investigated
++++	very common	?2	presence not verified, no name recorded
+++	common	N/A	absent, name not expected
++	uncommon
+	rare
Cook Islands islands: RR =Rarotonga, MG = Mangaia, AT =‘Ātiu, MK=Ma‘uke, MT=Miti‘āro, AK=Aitutaki, PL=Palmerston, PN=Penrhyn, MN=Manuae, TK=Takūtea, TN=Tongareva (TS=Tongaleva Spoken, TW=Tongareva Written, they say "el" but write "r"), MH=Manihiki, RK=Rakahanga, PK=Pukapuka, NS=Nassau, SW=Suwarrow. After a Polynesian name: ^=orthography query. Countries and other: FIJ=Fiji, WT=Wallis & Futuna, SAM=Samoa, TON=Tonga, NIU=Niue, CK=Cook Islands, CKM=Cook Islands Māori, FP=French Polynesia, AUS=Australs, SOC=Societies, TAH=Tahiti, TUA=Tuamotus, MQS=Marquesas, MNG=Mangareva, PIT=Pitcain group, EAS=Easter Island, HAW=Hawai‘i, NZ=New Zealand, NZM=New Zealand Māori

Scientific Taxonomy

Stylocheilus striatus (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)
SYNONYMS: Aplysia striata Quoy & Gaimard, 1832; Stylocheilus longicauda [mistaken, see seaslugforum.net]

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; MOLLUSCA; GASTROPODA; OPISTHOBRANCHIA; Anaspidea; APLYSIIDAE

More Information

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -
POSITIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Food. Comments: Important seasonal harvesting, especially at Ngatangiia on Rarotonga. Also harvested on Mangaia, Rimatara and Rurutu. Peple bit off and eat the head and squeeze out and discard internal organs, and then eat rest of body. This apparently removed toxins that otherwise make people ill. (G.Paulay & G. McCormak - pers comm).

Vouchers & References

Vouchers:
None Recorded.

References:
None recorded.

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zupM05b, zD05b

Web Resources

Citation Information

McCormack, Gerald (2007) Cook Islands Biodiversity Database, Version 2007.2. Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, Rarotonga. Online at http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org.
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