Ceratodoris nakamotoensis
Philippines · Indo Pacific - South China Sea
- Size
- 3–10 mm · max 20 mm
- Native range
- Western Pacific: Japan (Okinawa), Philippines, Indonesia and the Marshall Islands.
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Description
A tiny red goniodorid nudibranch, originally described from Okinawa as Okenia nakamotoensis. It lives and feeds on a bright red bryozoan whose colour it matches closely, often alongside its look-alike Ceratodoris kondoi.
Share link: https://seaslugs.org.il/species/ceratodoris-nakamotoensis-phillipines-indo-pacific-south-china-sea/
Identification
Elongate red body with long finger-like papillae: five pairs along the sides (two in front of the rhinophores) plus one in the middle in front of the gill. Papillae, gill branches and rhinophores tipped or marked with pinkish white. Rhinophores long and lamellate; oral tentacles fused into an oral veil.
Similar species
Ceratodoris kondoi is almost identical in colour and shares the same prey, but has only four pairs of lateral papillae instead of five.
Habitat & diet
Habitat
Under ledges and in small caves on reef pinnacles, on colonies of its red bryozoan host.
Food
The red bryozoan Tropidozoum cellariiforme.