The Ideal Sacoglossa Radula

A grayscale scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a biological structure that resembles a curved, serrated spine or a segmented appendage. The structure is made of overlapping, leaf-like scales or teeth along a central cord, curving into an incomplete loop. A small, star-shaped fragment lies at the bottom right. The background is a flat, dark gray. A white scale bar at the bottom indicates a length of 100µm, with technical data like "x100" magnification and "10kV" listed in the margin.

Label: The Ideal Sacoglossa Radulak
Artist: Melanie Medinaey
Description: The radula is a feeding structure unique to molluscs and, in sacoglossan sea slugs, it’s reduced to a single-pointed tooth per row that is used to puncture algal cells. I used this scanning electron microscopic image along with others from from 20 different specimens to perform integrative species delimitation of a taxonomically challenging clade of sacoglossan sea slugs, the E. tomentosa complex, that can be ecologically important in controlling invasive algal species of Caulerpa.
Type: Scanning Electron Microscope
Artist Affiliation: Graduate Student
Department: Biological Science
Area of Research: Mate choice and sexual conflict in marine simultaneous hermaphrodites
Date: 2018