Phyllidia ocellata Cuvier, 1804 - Phyllidiidae

Phyllidia ocellata

Cuvier, 1804

Also known as: Phyllidia undula

Photographed by: Twila Midgley

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Opisthobranchia
Order:	Nudibranchia
Suborder:	Doridina
Family:	Phyllidiidae
Species:	Phyllidia ocellata

Comment from Richard Willan on photo #5036

This individual displays an extreme colour form of Phyllidia ocellata where absolutely no white rings are present.

Comment from Richard Willan on photo #3687

An interestingly coloured individual – looks like a mixture of the colour forms called Phyllidia babai and Phyllidia undula.

Comment from Nathalie Yonow on photo #2507

Phyllidia undula, only recorded from the Red Sea. I have seen one specimen from South Africa but nothing else. If you have any others, I would be happy to revise my ideas, but internal characteristics and juveniles of four of these species are consistently different. You only get this one in the Red Sea by the way.

Comment from Richard Willan on photo #1978

The population in the Red Sea always has this wavy (instead of ocellated) pattern on its mantle and it has received the name Phyllidia undula for this distinctive pattern (so Phyllidia undula can be used as a regional form name). But this same pattern can also be found, albeit rarely, in “normal” ocellated populations in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, so Phyllidia undula cannot be considered as a species separate from Phyllidia ocellata.

Comment from Richard Willan on photo #2037

I think this individual represent an extreme colour form of Phyllidia ocellata.

Comment from Richard Willan on photo #607

A very atypical individual with no gold on the mantle.

Comment from Richard Willan on photo #51

Typical colour form.