2026 · Photo: Boaz Liebes
Aegires villosus
Sunset knobbed dorid
Philippines · Indo Pacific - South China Sea
- Size
- 9–15 mm
- Depth
- 3–12 m
- Native range
- Indo-West Pacific, from Tanzania and Sri Lanka to Japan, Australia, New Caledonia and Samoa.
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Description
A small, shaggy-looking aegirid dorid; the name means 'hairy', referring to its densely spiculose skin and long tubercles. Described from Sri Lanka in 1905, it was the first Indo-Pacific record of the genus. Juveniles have proportionally longer papillae than adults.
Share link: https://seaslugs.org.il/species/aegires-villosus-phillipines-indo-pacific-south-china-sea/
Identification
Milky white body covered with long, club-tipped tubercles; tubercle tips and other markings reddish-purple to orange-yellow. The densely spiculose skin gives a hairy appearance.
Similar species
Other small Aegires lack the long, purple- or orange-tipped papillae; most are covered with shorter rounded tubercles.
Habitat & diet
Habitat
Shallow sheltered sites such as jetties and silty lagoons, 3–12 m.
Food
Calcareous sponges, like other Aegires.
