---
title: Green Lobiger (Lobiger viridis)
scientific_name: Lobiger viridis
common_name: Green Lobiger
taxon: Sap-sucking slugs
published: 2026-08-07T16:29:44.206Z
updated: 2026-08-08T15:00:23.591Z
tags: Green Lobiger, Lobiger viridis, Sap-sucking slugs, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/sap-sucking-slugs/green-lobiger
---

# Green Lobiger (*Lobiger viridis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sap-sucking slugs (*Sacoglossa*)
- **Size:** up to 3 cm
- **Depth:** 0-15 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** On Caulerpa in calm shallow water
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Simultaneous hermaphrodite

## How to recognise it

- four long finger-like lobes spread over the back
- small transparent shell between the lobes
- bright green with pale speckling
- on Caulerpa, never on coral

A bright green slug of about 3 cm (1.2 in) with four long finger-like lobes spread over its back and a small transparent shell sitting between them - an outline unlike anything else on the weed, and worth a photograph when found.

The lobes are defensive. Threatened, the animal waves them, and under real pressure it sheds them altogether; they continue to twitch while the slug retreats, and regrow later. Like its relatives it lives on Caulerpa, punctures the cells and drains them, keeping the chloroplasts for a time. The shell is too small to withdraw into and serves no protective purpose - it is a leftover from ancestors that had a full one, on its way out over evolutionary time. Calm shallow bays with standing Caulerpa are where to search, mostly after dark.

## Also known as

- **English:** Blue-striped Leafsnail
- **Russian:** Лобигер зелёный

## Scientific synonyms

- *Lobiger picta* Pease, 1868

## Range

Mozambique, Singapore, South Africa

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/sap-sucking-slugs/green-lobiger)*
*Updated: August 8, 2026*