Ceratophyllidia? from Indonesia & Thailand

October 8, 2001
From: Walabha Sinbul


Dear Bill,

How are you doing? Hope all is well with you. Here I am again, an amateur diver from Thailand, writing another mail to ask you to illuminate me on this nudibranch I've found lately [Upper right photo}. I spotted this fellow on the sandy bottom at the dive site called Sea Coral Garden 1, Derawan, Indonesia on the afternoon of August 15 [2001]. The approximate depth was 18 metres. There was another one of this kind with it. Nearby we found their egg mass. The color was white.

My friend and I are certain that we've never seen this fellow before and once again that we looked at each other and agreed to, "Ask Bill". So could you please help identify him for us and if possible, please also give me a link where I could find more information about him?

I have also sent a picture [Lower right] of what we think is the same kind that we've just encountered from our PhiPhi Island, Krabi, Thailand. It was the size of my thumbnail and was totally alone on a vast landscape of sheer coral rubbles.

Thank you very much indeed Bill.
Cheers,
Walabha

walabha@hotmail.com

Sinbul, W., 2001 (Oct 8) Ceratophyllidia? from Indonesia & Thailand. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5128

Dear Walabha,
Thanks for the interesting photos. The Phi Phi island animal is definitely a species of Ceratophyllidia but at present the experts don't know if there is just one species or a number. basically we don't know enough about them. Your animal from Indonesia looks quite like a sacoglossan sea slug like Cyerce. [See ] but it could just as well be a Ceratophyllidia. I don't know of any that have been reported to have green colouration. The edge of the mantle and the foot seem more like a dorid than a sacoglossan but I would need to have a better look at its head to be sure. Until I have more information I will leave it with Ceratophyllidia.

Ceratophyllidia, despite the large 'cerata-like' tubercles on its back, is a phyllidiid nudibranch, closely related to Phyllidia, Reticulidia, Phyllidiella and related genera.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman.

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Oct 8). Comment on Ceratophyllidia? from Indonesia & Thailand by Walabha Sinbul. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/5128

Factsheet

Ceratophyllidia spp.

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