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2026 · Photo: Boaz Liebes
Philippines · Indo Pacific - South China Sea
A solar-powered aeolid unusual in the genus for feeding on nephtheid soft corals (probably Lemnalia and Paralemnalia) rather than xeniids. Its spiny, cactus-like cerata mimic the branched polyps and spicules of its host, and zooxanthellae taken from the coral are kept alive in the digestive gland.
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Translucent white body with a light white dusting and thin brown streaks of digestive gland showing through. The club- or spoon-shaped cerata, in clusters along each side, are densely covered in large pointed tubercles and are never curled at the tip. Rhinophores and slightly shorter oral tentacles are smooth and tapering.
Phyllodesmium tuberculatum is bluish grey, with rounded (not pointed) nodules on the cerata, and lives with xeniid soft corals. Other tuberculate species such as P. lembehense lack the dense covering of spiky tubercles.
Coral reefs, on nephtheid soft corals; recorded at about 7–16 m.
Nephtheid soft corals, probably Lemnalia and Paralemnalia.