Spiky Sea Hare

About this species

Stylocheilus striatus is a species of sea hare found in the Indo-pacific region living from the intertidal zone to a depth of 30 metres. Common names include lined sea hare, blue ring sea hare and furry sea hare. Mature animals can reach sizes of up to 65 mm in length and are brown in colour with blue spots. Their diet mainly consists of blue algae. They play an important role in controlling toxic blooms of the cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Stylocheilus striatus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 131 records
February: 153 records
March: 160 records
April: 187 records
May: 97 records
June: 80 records
July: 82 records
August: 84 records
September: 97 records
October: 144 records
November: 133 records
December: 135 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–15 m · Deepest record: 28 m

0–10 m: 103 records
10–20 m: 42 records
20–30 m: 3 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–30 °C

16–18 °C: 2 records
18–20 °C: 11 records
20–22 °C: 29 records
22–24 °C: 15 records
24–26 °C: 39 records
26–28 °C: 70 records
28–30 °C: 73 records

Photos

(c) Sylke Rohrlach, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Chaloklum Diving, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Chaloklum Diving, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) libby hepburn, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) M Rutherford, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Spiky Sea Hare, Lined Sea Hare, Striated Seahare

Names in 4 more languages

Spanish: Liebre de mar rayada
French: Lièvre de mer strié
Japanese: クロスジアメフラシ
Simplified Chinese: 柱唇海兔, 條紋柱唇海兔

Other scientific names: Aplysia striata, Notarchus lineolatus, Notarchus stimpsoni, Stylocheilus lineolatus, Stylocheilus quercinus

Similar species

Ocellate Sea Hare
Aplysia argus
Large-spotted sea hare
Aplysia dactylomela
Sucker-foot Sea Hare
Aplysia juliana
Aplysia kurodai
Dwarf sea hare
Aplysia parvula
Blue-spotted sea hare
Bursatella leachii

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
613 open-data records from 1921 to 2026.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.