Back to genus solar-powered sea slugsBack to the galleryAdd a comment
2026 · Photo: Boaz Liebes
Yellow-tipped phyllodesmium
Philippines · Indo Pacific - South China Sea
A 'solar-powered' aeolid nudibranch that keeps photosynthetic zooxanthellae, taken from its soft-coral prey, in branched ducts of the digestive gland in its cerata. Like other Phyllodesmium it lacks cnidosacs. Its brown-speckled colouring camouflages it on its host corals.
Share link: https://seaslugs.org.il/species/phyllodesmium-briareum-phillipines-indo-pacific-south-china-sea/
Light brown to olive-brown body with darker brown specks; the areas around the rhinophores and the front of the foot are paler and unspotted. Oral tentacles longer than the smooth rhinophores. Four groups of slender, straight, club-shaped cerata with swollen tips on each side, showing lines of brown specks (zooxanthellae).
Other zooxanthellate Phyllodesmium species; P. briareum is best recognised by its club-shaped, brown-speckled cerata and its association with Briareum-type soft corals.
Shallow reefs on its host soft corals; recorded at about 6–20 m.
Stoloniferan and encrusting octocorals such as Briareum, Solenopodium stelleri and Pachyclavularia violacea.
