Nudibranch Domain

Images and Information about Sea Slugs from around the world

This is a site for aficionados of nudibranchs and their sea slug relatives, who want more than pretty pictures. At the launch the site is populated with an image of each species sighted on the Sunshine Coast, southern Queensland, Australia by The Sunshine Coast Sea Slug Survey Team.

As the site develops, information, more images and references about each of the species will be added providing a helpful and valuable resource. The many hundreds of Indo-Pacific species, recorded by The Team when overseas, will also be regularly added significantly broadening the resource.

There are three ways to get your hit of Sea Slug knowledge.

Species Profile features information about specific sea slugs. Navigate, Identify and Learn about species via the lists. Notification of the latest expanded entry will appear below on the Home Page.
NudiNote features specific topics that can be sourced via its Archive. Notification of the latest entry will appear below on the Home Page.
Understanding Nudibranchs is a book on general sea slug biology and behaviour that will be posted in parts, as they are completed.

Home to The Sea Slug Survey of the Sunshine Coast

The Sea Slug Snippet

Trapania lemanioides Smirnoff, Donohoo & Gosliner, 2022

Small 3-5 mm, very narrow form, pigmented all white (with slight pinkish tinge), relatively large rhinophores with 4-5 lamellae, small gills and average sized extrarhinophoral and extrabranchial processes. Oral tentacles and tentacular foot corners are long and conical.

Anilao, Verde Island Passage, Philippines.

Latest NudiNote

NudiNotes are interesting and informative short articles about sea slugs and their behaviour.

RUDIE NUDIES – The Mating Game

RUDIE NUDIES - The Mating Game Nudibranch aficionados, those individuals who spend their time searching the ocean floor for the slimy objects of their desire, will at sometime or other have come across pairs of them conjugating. Because they fertilise internally (with...

CERATA Part 3 – Defensive Attributes

CERATA Part 3 - Defensive Attributes In the Aeolidina, (the aeolids) the cerata have certainly reached the apogee of development, therefore most of the discussion in this Part will pertain to that group. Defences in the aeolids are concentrated in the cerata and...

Table of Sea Slug Feeding Preferences

A generalized table indicating the diet of the major sea slug groups. Click the image below to view the full table (opens in a Google Sheet in a separate tab) About the table The above is just an image for navigation purposes and will not show the latest...

THURIDILLA ENTANGLEMENTS – Some observations on Thuridilla mating

Thuridilla Entanglements Some observations on Thuridilla mating Recently (Feb, 2022) I captured an image of a pair of our Thuridilla cf. splendens apparently engaging in the act of hypodermic insemination (shown above). The image shows both specimens of the pair with...

ILLUMINATION ENLIGHTENMENT – Bioluminescence in Nudibranchs

Plocamopherus ceylonicus displaying the four papilla-mounted bioluminescent globes arranged around the vulnerable gill. ILLUMINATION ENLIGHTENMENT Bioluminescence in Nudibranchs Species of the humble sea slug can possess unusual and extraordinary capabilities such as...

CERATA Part 2 – The Multiple Functions

CERATA Part 2 - The Multiple Functions In Part 1, an overview of cerata was given together with some examples of what are, and what are not, considered to be cerata and which sea slug taxa possess them. A list of their diverse roles was included. Here in Part 2 those...

CERATA: The Multifunctional “Fingers” of Sea Slugs Part 1 – Introduction

CERATA: The Multifunctional "Fingers" of Sea Slugs Part 1 - Introduction The term cerata (singular: ceras) is most often associated with the processes that arise from the dorsum of the Aeolidina - the aeolid nudibranchs. However, it is also commonly applied to the...

HUNTER SEA SLUGS – Brittle Stars, Worms, Bivalves and Crustaceans as prey

HUNTER SEA SLUGS Brittle Stars, Worms, Bivalves and Crustaceans as prey In this NudiNote on sea slug feeding we look at those that are hunters, those sea slugs that actively track down their mobile animal prey as opposed to the majority of sea slugs that are consumers...

Lookalikes to Look Out for – No. 3. – Ceratosoma trilobatum, Ceratosoma tenue & Ceratosoma gracillimum

Ceratosoma trilobatum - Ceratosoma tenue - Ceratosoma gracillimum In No. 3 of this series there are actually 3 species to compare. These 3 are quite often confused and there are good reasons for that confusion. All were described not last century but the century...

VEXATIOUS VARIABILITY – No. 3 Goniobranchus splendidus

VEXATIOUS VARIABILITY - No. 3 Goniobranchus splendidus Goniobranchus splendidus is a common and conspicuous species of nudibranch, though endemic to the east coast of Australia, from southern New South Wales to central Queensland. It exhibits variation in...

The current NudiNote is displayed above. Click to read more or slide to earlier NudiNotes using the arrows which appear when hovering over the image. Alternatively all the NudiNotes may be accessed via the button on the navigation bar above.

Species Profile

All species sighted have been listed on the website with at least one image. There is an ongoing update process whereby information about each species including references and additional images will be added. As each species is enhanced it will be featured here as a temporary notification of that latest update.

Trapania tigger

Information about this species has been added to its page with references. Additional images have been added to the gallery.

News and Updates

– SEA SLUG VIDEOS are now being added to the Species Profile pages.
– If relevant to a NudiNote they will be placed into the appropriate one.
– All videos are also archived under SUPPORT on the main menu.