Welcome to Cataloging Diversity in the Sacoglossa  The
Sacoglossa is an order of mostly herbivorous shelled and naked
sea slugs (~400 described species) that peaks in diversity in
the tropical Pacific and Caribbean (Jensen, 2007; Jensen, 1996).
A growing research community uses these molluscs as model
organisms for studying dispersal, kleptoplasty, larval
development, symbiosis, and marine speciation. Many sacoglossan
sea slugs retain photosynthetically active chloroplasts from the
algae they eat, incorporate extra-embryonic resources into their
egg masses (Allen et al., 2009), and a few taxa can produce both
pelagic planktotrophic (feeding) and lecithotrophic
(intracapsularly metamorphosing ) larvae-- a rare phenomenon
called poecilogony (Krug, 2009; Krug et al., 2007). Some even
have bivalved shells! Despite the widespread interest in their
biology, sacoglossans have received little attention by
systematists. It is therefore not surprising that faunal lists
typically underestimate sacoglossan diversity (Tro