Phyllidiopsis loricata from southern Queensland

Dear Gary,

Thanks for this record of a rarely reported species. It would be interesting to know how it got to be where it is in your photo as it doesn't look to happy to me amongst the cnidarians. Perhaps it had been 'tasted' by a fish and dropped. Your shot of the underside is valuable when dealing with phyllidiids because it is often the place where we can find identification clues. For example the strange structure in front of the mouth is a flap formed from the fusion of the oral tentacles, and fused oral tentacles like this are found only in Phyllidiopsis. We can also see the bank of small lamellae on each side where the mantle meets the side of the body. These are the secondary gills which in phyllidiids have replaced the circle of dorsal gills normally present in dorid nudibranchs.

Best wishes,
Bill Rudman