So the WTF Wednesday animal is... an Umbrella Snail (or slug). I didn’t even know these things existed!
It was unearthed during yesterday’s rock platform wander and you know when you see something and you’re turning the image around in your brain trying to work out what it is and it’s not until you actually get up nice and close that your brain says, “Oh yeah! I totally know what that is!”? Well, that didn’t happen.
We pulled it out and we’re still like, what are we actually looking at? I mean, it’s not really obvious at first glance. Thankfully one of the women was a diver and she’d encountered them before.
These gastropods eat sponges and the shell is really small, that’s the little oval thing on top, and we couldn’t work out which end was which until it lifted its shell up - like an umbrella - and popped its two rhinophores out! And even then we were screaming excitedly 😂 The foot was super slimy and all in all this would have to be one of the more weird looking critters I’ve encountered!!!
As always, thanks for playing along!
Umbrella Snail
Sandon Point
