In the past, the last thing that came to mind when I thought of snails and slugs was beauty. A little bit of disgust and maybe even fascination at best, but beauty? Today, things look rather different. Here’s a list of mollusk beauties that’ll change your mind like it changed mine.
1. Frosted Sea Slug
The frosted slug, alabaster nudibranch, white-lined Dirona, or whatever you want to call it, truly lives up to its name. These opisthobranch gastropod mollusks belong to the family Dironidae, and they can reach 7.1 inches. You’ll find them anywhere from Alaska to California, as long as it’s in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
2. Varicose Wart Slug
When I first heard the name, varicose wart slug, I expected nothing but wonky warts and overall ick. Then I saw a picture and wow, these shell-less marine gastropod mollusks are actually so pretty. They belong to the family Phyllidiidae, and they live anywhere in the Indo-West Pacific Oceans.
3. Willan’s Chromodoris
If you like blue, this slug is for you. The Chromodoris willani, or Willan’s chromodoris, is another shell-less marine gastropod mollusk, but this one belongs to the family Chromodorididae. It’s named after the nudibranch taxonomist, Dr. Richard C. Willan, and it lives in the Western Pacific Ocean.
4. Spanish Shawl
When this marine gastropod mollusk moves through the waters of the west coast of North America, it looks just like a fabric shawl. And that’s exactly where this marine gastropod mollusk gets its name. While they’re native to North America’s west coast, some people have reportedly spotted some in Mexico, Canada, and even Columbia.
5. Assassin Snail
Did you also wonder why they didn’t call the assassin snail a bee snail instead? It turns out that they actually did. Anentome helena is known as the assassin snail as well as the bumblebee snail. For obvious reasons, of course. It’s an aquatic gastropod, or freshwater snail from the family Nassariidae. This beauty is not as widespread, and you can find them throughout southeast Asia. That includes Malaysia, Thailand, and Lake Toba.
6. Sea Butterfly
A sea butterfly is a holoplanktonic opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the order Pteropoda. Actually, it’s a collective term for the world’s most abundant gastropod species. They’re very important in the ocean food chain, and they swarm in large groups. Sometimes, you can find one or two of the poor things along the coastline of eastern Australia, where they wash ashore.
7. Sea Angel
Sea angels were basically the sister group of sea butterflies, but now they’re not classed as pteropods anymore. Today, they belong to Gymnosomata, which is in the larger clade, Heterobranchia. They’re a large group of free-swimming sea slugs, pelagic opisthobranches, or weird deep sea creature species. They can survive anywhere, from under sea ice to equatorial seas, and they prefer to stay as deep as possible. Get this: some sea angels actually prey exclusively on sea butterflies!
8. Variable Neon Slug
The bright variable neon slug, or dusky nembrotha, is a marine gastropod mollusk from the family Polyceridae. It comes from the tropical Western Indo-Pacific and some people confuse it with the Nembrotha cristata, which looks similar to the Nembrotha kubaryana (variable neon). But there’s a very good reason for this. The variable neons have red-orange borders on their little snail feet, while the other guys don’t.
9. Candy Cane Snail
This guy is a tree-living creature that’s native to Hispaniola, the Caribbean Island. You don’t even have to wonder where it got its name, because the shell speaks for itself. Of all the animals that live in seashells, I think this one has the most unique appearance. It’s a pretty interesting snail because it spends most of its life up in trees but comes down to lay its eggs in soil.
10. Janthina janthina
These snails are slightly different from the other freshwater and tree snails on the list because they float at the surface of the ocean. Janthina janthina, violet sea snails, common violet snails, large violet snails, and purple storm snails. That’s all of the names they go by, but the main thing to know is that they’re marine gastropod mollusks from the family Janthinidae. They live in tropical and temperate seas with nice warm waters, where they hold onto air bubbles to stay afloat. You can find them floating in groups or stranded on beaches after being blown out by strong winds.
11. Cyerce Nigricans
Out of all the beauties in this list, I find the Indian and Pacific Oceans’ Cyerce nigricans, or black-and-gold sapsucking slug, the most beautiful. They’re sacoglossan sea slugs, which is a type of shell-less marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks from the family Caliphyllidae. Not only are they pretty, but they can actually break off the cerata from their backs when they feel threatened.
12. Chromodoris magnifica
This Chromodorididae family member is also known as the magnificent sea slug. It’s a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk from the Indo-Pacific region from the Philippines and Indonesia, Eastern Australia, and New Guinea. This gorgeous slug can reach 2.4 inches in length, and it can withdraw its gills and rhinophores when danger arises. It does look a lot like its cousin snail, the Chromodoris quadricolor but you can distinguish them by looking for the magnifica’s orange border.
13. Blue Dragon
Blue sea dragon, sea swallow, blue ocean slug, blue angel, sea swallow, blue glaucus, dragon slug, and blue sea slug. Those are all names that appear in every list of the most beautiful snails and slugs, as well as the lists of animals you won’t believe exist. These guys from the family Glaucidae also float at the surface, but they do it a little differently. They float upside down and they use the surface tension of the water and the gas bubble in their stomachs to stay there. They’ve been spotted all over, from the east and south coasts of South Africa to Thailand and even in European waters. However, it’s hard to spot them because they float with the blue side of their bodies facing up, which helps them blend in with the water.
14. Cuban Painted Snail
When I first saw this snail, I thought someone painted it. And low and behold, it was actually called a Cuban painted snail, or oriente tree snail. It’s a land snail, or terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk from the family Helminthoglyptidae. As for the ‘Cuban’ part, it’s endemic to coastal habitats in subtropical forests in Cuba. They’re actually polymorphic, so their shell color can vary according to what they eat.
15. Flamingo Tongue Snail
You can find these marine gastropod mollusks in the waters of North Carolina, the northern coast of Brazil, the Caribbean, the Lesser Antilles, and the Gulf of Mexico. They belong to the family Ovulidae, which makes them cowry allies or false cowries. You would think that it’s their shells that have the orange spots with black rims. But it turns out that it isn’t actually live mantle tissue that covers the shell. The flamingo tongue snail only retracts these mantle flaps when it’s attacked.
16. Chromodoris Quadricolor
The Chromodoris quadricolor is a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk from the family Chromodorididae, along with the other Chromodoris species in the list. Quadricolor means 4 colors and the reason is pretty obvious. It’s one of the most common nudibranch species in the Red Sea and it also lives in other areas in the Western Indian Ocean.
