It's cool to be a plant. Lie down and feed on the energy of the sun. Not life, but a dream! Many would like to live like this, but it is impossible to become a vegetable, they need to be born. Right? No! 
Even if you were born an animal, you can turn into a plant, you just need to play your cards right. A great example of this is the sea slug Elysium.
The path from animal to plant begins in one of the bays on the east coast of North America. There, in the shallow water, lie long beads made of dense eggs. When the time comes, veligers - the larvae of future slugs - will fly out of them. 
Don't worry, we all looked like this when we were teenagers...
Veliger can do two things: eat and swim. This tiny creature is absolutely defenseless against the harsh world. Together with other plankton, it floats in the water column and eats away in fine organic suspension. The vast majority of veligers will be eaten. They will never learn photosynthesis. 
Mournfully silent in memory of those who did not live to adulthood.
Only a few will survive to metamorphosis. They will develop into adults and settle to the bottom of shallow pools. The slugs’ plan is as reliable as a Swiss watch: eat like crazy. The main thing is to change the purpose and method of hunting. 
Still young, not green.
The victim of future waucheria vegetables is large filamentous algae. The slug kills the unfortunate woman with particular cruelty: it absorbs, pierces and sucks out all the juices from her, leaving a lifeless cellulose shell. Most of the entrails will be safely digested, but the chloroplasts, the parts of the cell responsible for photosynthesis, will survive. The mollusk's body will drag them into the skin cells and become a little greener. 
Elysia tries to eat the seaweed picture. The wildlife is amazing!
Active consumption of algae takes a month and a half. During this time, the slug stretches up to 6 centimeters and turns so green that it itself can be mistaken for a piece of moss or mud. Around this time, the mollusk stops feeding completely. Now the stolen pieces of cells will provide the animal with resources through photosynthesis. 
Now you know what creatures look like that feed on the energy of the sun and can actually get enough of it.
Of course, elysia will not become a 100% plant. Mobility and complex organization are here to stay. And her life is not so simple. The adult mollusk attracts many parasites. Sometimes there are so many of them that elysia is forced to discard the body! She literally cuts off her torso from her head, grows a new body and goes in search of new chloroplasts. 
“Didn’t you forget your head at home?” - Forgot...
And even if her life goes without personal execution, the difficulties do not end there. Algae can increase the number of chloroplasts if necessary, but our character can only steal them. Therefore, photosynthetic cells live in it for 9-10 months at most. But there is no need for more elision, during this time she will have time to make thousands of children! 
Madam, may I allow you to impregnate me?
Each elysia is a hermaphrodite: it combines both male and female reproductive cells. When a couple of slugs meet, they become close friends and exchange genetic material. As a result, each participant in the process lays his own portion of eggs. From the outside it looks like a bag with many small balls inside. From such “pearls” a new generation of slugs will emerge. 
Eh, vermicelli has gone wrong these days!
My elision score: 8.5 chloroplasts out of 10. I wouldn't mind getting energy from my own skin either, but it would be nice to maintain a human lifespan and the ability to eat pizza.
0 comments
