Optical Properties of Body Mucus Secreted from Coral Reef Sea Slugs: Measurement of Refractive Indices and Relative Absorption Spectra.

ABSTRACT: Sea slugs are always covered in a mucus layer that has various functions including chemical defense that often involves aposematism and mimicry. Therefore, it is necessary for sea slugs to exhibit their body colors and patterns exactly, and the optical properties of mucus should support this requirement. We examined body mucus from heterobranch sea slugs collected in the Okinawan coral reefs. The refractive indices of mucus from 32 species ranged from 1.3371 to 1.3854 and were similar or slightly greater than the refractive index of seawater (ca. 1.34), indicating that light reflectance on the mucus layer is generally small. Moreover, dissolution of mucus into seawater would form a gradient of refractive indices and enhance the reduction of reflectance. We also obtained relative absorption

SUBMITTER: Takano R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11377269 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature