Most people aren’t fans of slugs until they eпсoᴜпteг a “leaf sheep,” and this cartoonish sea slug is too cute to be real!
These amazingly tiny creatures, measuring just 0.2 to 0.4 inches in length, can be found along the coasts of Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They have faces that bear a remarkable resemblance to cartoon sheep, earning them the nicknames “leaf sheep” or “leaf slugs.”
Take a closer look at one of these enchanting critters, and you’ll notice a pair of dагk beady eyes and two rhinophores (antennae-like scent and taste receptors) that together give them a distinctly sheep-like appearance. сomЬіпed with a coat of leaf-like plumage known as cerata, it’s no wonder admirers prefer “leaf sheep” to their less catchy official name, Costasiella kuroshimae.
These creatures are more than just their cute faces; leaf slugs possess the clever ability to sustain themselves through photosynthesis. After munching on algae, which is the leaf sheep’s equivalent of grass, they can retain chloroplasts, plant cell organelles that convert light energy into chemical energy.
This means that when sunlight hits these tiny slugs, energy is released into their cells to sustain them. The process of extracting chloroplasts from the algae is called kleptoplasty, and it’s what makes them glow magically, like miniature marine glow-worms.