Life Habits
Acanthodoris lutea feeds on encrusting bryozoans. It turns the chemicals received from the bryozoan food into a noxious metabolite which is toxic to possible predators (Morris et al. 1980).
This species is aposomatically colored, warning predators of this toxic deterrent. If you handle this dorid you will smell the deterrent chemical on your fingers: it has the pungent aroma of sandalwood.
Read more about this topic: Orange-peel Doris
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or habits:
“Yet they that know all things but know
That all this life can give us is
A child’s laughter, a woman’s kiss.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Although a firm swat could bring a recalcitrant child swiftly into line, the changes were usually external, lasting only as long as the swatter remained in view....Permanent transformation had to be internal....The habits of self discipline, as laborious and frustrating as they were to achieve, offered the only real possibility of keeping children safe from their own excesses as well as the omnipresent dangers of society.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)