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Bicolor nudibranch
Philippines · Indo Pacific - South China Sea
A small aeolid (Samlidae, formerly Flabellina) that feeds only on hydroids. When crawling it keeps flapping its flattened oral tentacles to test the surface. Populations from different regions differ slightly and may be a species complex.
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Slender, translucent white to bluish-white body. The key mark is a vivid orange or golden ring just below the white tip of each ceras; the rhinophores also have an orange band near the tip.
Samla bilas has three coloured bands per ceras. Mediterranean purple flabellinids (Flabellina affinis) are violet all over.
Rocky and coral reefs and rubble slopes among hydroids, ~0–25 m.
Hydroids, biting off individual polyps.
