Elysia

Elysia
A live individual of Elysia ornata, head end towards the left
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Heterobranchia
Superorder:	Sacoglossa
Superfamily:	Plakobranchoidea
Family:	Plakobranchidae
Genus:	Elysia Risso, 1818
Type species
Notarchus timidus Risso, 1818
Species
See text
Synonyms
Actaeon Rang, 1829 (Not available from Oken, 1815) Aplysiopterus Delle Chiaje, 1830 Checholysia Ortea, Caballer, Moro & Espinosa, 2005 Elysia (Elysia) Risso, 1818 Elysia (Elysiopterus) Pruvot-Fol, 1946 (unavailable name: no type species designated) Elysia (Tridachia) Elysiella Verrill, 1872 (Invalid: junior homonym of Elysiella Bergh, 1871) Elysiella Bergh, 1871 Elysiobranchus Pruvot-Fol, 1930 Hydropsyche Kelaart, 1858 (Invalid: junior homonym of Hydropsyche Pictet, 1834 [Trichoptera]) Pattyclaya Ev. Marcus, 1982 Pterogasteron Pease, 1860 Rhyzobranchus Cantraine, 1835 (Unavailable name: established in synonymy of Elysia) Thallepus Swainson, 1840 Thridachia P. Fischer, 1883 (Unjustified emendation of Tridachia) Tridachia Deshayes, 1857 Tridachiella MacFarland, 1924

Elysia is a genus of sea slugs, They are marine gastropod molluscs in the family Plakobranchidae. These animals are very colorful. They can look like nudibranchs, but are not very closely related to them. They are sacoglossans, commonly known as sap-sucking slugs.

Elysia sea slugs eat algae. Some species such as E. viridis and E. chlorotica use the chloroplasts in the algae for themselves. The chloroplasts line the slug’s digestive tract. It lets the slugs live by photosynthesis for several months at a time. Exactly how the slugs use the chloroplasts is unclear. Many of the proteins used by chloroplasts are encoded in the genome of their cells. There are hunreds of these proteins. They are made in the cell’s nucleus. They are then moved into the chloroplast. This lets the slug.

This genus was said to be in the family Stiligeridae. It has also been placed in the family Elysiidae.