---
title: Ringed Sea Hare (Aplysia argus)
scientific_name: Aplysia argus
common_name: Ringed Sea Hare
taxon: Opisthobranchia
published: 2026-08-11T12:13:44.729Z
updated: 2026-08-11T13:05:48.897Z
tags: Ringed Sea Hare, Aplysia argus, Opisthobranchia, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/opisthobranchia/ringed-sea-hare
---

# Ringed Sea Hare (*Aplysia argus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Opisthobranchia (*Opisthobranchia*)
- **Size:** up to 20 cm
- **Depth:** 0-15 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Shallow reef flats and algae-covered rock
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Simultaneous hermaphrodite
- **Hazard:** Poisonous

## How to recognise it

- large heavy-bodied sea hare, to 20 cm
- big black rings scattered over a brown to olive body
- broad parapodial flaps that can be used to swim in short bursts
- grazes red algae on shallow rock

The big one: up to 20 cm (8 in) of soft brown-olive body scattered with large black rings, described from these waters by Rüppell and Leuckart in 1830. It hauls itself over shallow rock grazing red algae, and at that size it is one of the few molluscs a snorkeler notices without being told to look.

The flaps along its back are not decoration. Sea hares can flap them like wings and swim in short, clumsy bursts, usually to get off the bottom when something is bothering them. It is not fast and it does not last, but it works often enough to be worth having.

Mating is a spectacle in this genus. Every animal is both male and female at once, and they form chains: the one in front acts as female, the one behind as male, and each animal in the middle does both jobs at the same time. Chains of half a dozen animals are on record, which is efficient, if not dignified.

## Also known as

- **English:** Ocellate Sea Hare, White-speckled Sea Hare
- **Italian:** lepre di mare indo-pacifica
- **Portuguese:** Lebre-do-mar-salpicada
- **Japanese:** ジャノメアメフラシ
- **Chinese:** 環眼海兔
- **Russian:** Морской заяц Аргус
- **KO:** 큰안경무늬군소

## Scientific synonyms

- *Aplysia (Tethys) benedicti* Eliot, 1900
- *Aplysia angasi* G. B. Sowerby II, 1869
- *Aplysia annulifera* Thiele, 1930
- *Aplysia benedicti* Eliot, 1900
- *Aplysia bourailli* Risbec, 1951
- *Aplysia fimbriata* A. Adams & Reeve, 1850
- *Aplysia odorata* Risbec, 1928
- *Aplysia odorata var. bourailli* Risbec, 1951
- *Aplysia operta* (Burne, 1906)
- *Aplysia radiata* Ehrenberg, 1831
- *Aplysia scutellata* Ehrenberg, 1831
- *Aplysia tigrina* Rang, 1828
- *Aplysia velifer* Bergh, 1905
- *Syphonota viridescens* Pease, 1868
- *Tethys operta* Burne, 1906

## Range

Australia, Indian Ocean, Mozambique, New Zealand, Red Sea

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/opisthobranchia/ringed-sea-hare)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*