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In our new road show Dazzle: How Nature Uses Colors to Attract, Repel, Disguise, and Fool, we spotlight this Spanish Dancer sea slug (nudibranch) I photographed in the Indo-Pacific.
To predators, the marine mollusk’s dazzling color apparently say STOP! CONSUME AT YOUR OWN RISK. That’s because this red sea slug contains a toxic chemical obtained from a sponge the 6-inch long, soft-bodied mollusk loves to eat.
Backstory: pharmacologists have studied this chemical from the slug—an anti-fungal agent that fights off Candida albicans.