Aiteng discovered by PSU academics, one of the world’s top ten new species of 2009

International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University in the United States of America and International Committee on Taxonomy selected top ten new species of 2009 from thousands of new species discovered around the world. One of the top ten new species of 2009 was Aiteng, the world’s new species of slug discovered by academics of Faculty of Science and Technology, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus.

     

Aiteng is a new species of sea slug in the new family of insect-eating sea slug, Aitengidae, found in 2009 in a muddy mangrove of Pak Phanang Bay in Nakhon Si Thammart Province by a team of scientists from Faculty of Science and Technology, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus led by Dr. C. Swennen, a researcher from the Netherlands and Mr. Somsak Buatip, a scientist from the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology.

Ai-teng is a black 6-17 millimeters long sea slug that feeds on pupae of various insects which differentiates it from sea slugs in other families that feed on seaweed. Aiteng can survive both on land and in water like other amphibians. Aiteng’s scientific name is Aiteng ater while its common one is named after a main puppet of Southern Thailand whose skin complexion is dark and whose eyes are similar to this sea slug’s, and the word “ater” comes from Latin meaning black.