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Green melibe
Philippines · Indo Pacific - South China Sea
A very large, unusual nudibranch without a radula. Its huge round oral hood works like a net, sweeping the bottom and snapping shut on small crustaceans. Its leaf-like cerata make it look like drifting plant debris.
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Somewhat translucent tan to greenish body with brown blotches and white flecks. Large circular oral hood fringed with papillae; 5–9 flattened, tuberculate cerata per side; small rhinophores.
The native Tethys fimbria also has a huge oral hood but is whitish and grows larger, with smooth cerata that drop off.
Sand or mud and seagrass beds (Posidonia, Cymodocea), lagoons and sheltered bays, ~2–20 m.
Small crustaceans (amphipods, copepods, even small crabs) caught with its large oral hood.
