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

Goniobranchus geometricus (Risbec, 1928)

Light purple background with thick dark lines. Covered in white tubercles. Density of compound tubercles gives variable presentation. Tips of rhinophores and gills green.

.Currimundi Reef, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Latest NudiNote

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

Lookalikes to Look out for – No. 2. – Mexichromis pusilla & Verconia varians

Mexichromis pusilla - Verconia varians In No. 2 of this series Mexichromis pusilla (Bergh, 1874) and Verconia varians (Pease,1871) will be discussed. Both species were described back in the 19th century and have gone through a couple of name changes. The original...

FOUR AND MORE INTO ONE – Variation in Miamira moloch

Miamira moloch is a large to very large nudibranch of the Chromdorididae Family. It was first described as Ceratosoma moloch in 1988 by Rudman from two specimens, one collected from Heron Island, Central Queensland and the other from North Stradbroke Island, Southern...

REMARKABLE RHINOPHORES

When you don’t possess true eyes to recognise the shape of things, to see where you’re going, or what’s coming, then you must certainly have some other highly developed sense to survive. Living in a medium that has thousands of different compounds dissolved or...

STALKING WORMS – FEEDING BY Mariaglaja inornata

The Aglajidae are a carnivorous group of headshield sea slugs that actively hunt their prey. They are mostly fast moving in order to capture other sea slugs and polychaete worms. They are well-adapted for the task with clusters of sensory bristles located on the front...

Lookalikes to look out for – No. 1

Sometimes when reviewing images post-dive it’s easy to overlook an uncommon species if it has a similar appearance to a species that is frequently sighted. We know the common one well but have forgotten about the rarer one that looks similar - The Lookalike. This...

HANCOCK’S ORGANS – THE “RHINOPHORES” YOU HAVE WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE RHINOPHORES

We all know about the rhinophores of the true nudibranchs - those highly developed chemical-detecting “antennae” located anteriorly on their “head”. Even sea slugs other than the true nudibranchs such as the sea hares, and the side-gilled pleurobranchs have...

“WELL, THERE’S SOMETHING YOU DON’T SEE EVERY DAY.” – Tenellia sibogae

Tenellia sibogae (or Trinchesia sibogae, depending on whose taxonomy you follow) is usually sighted upon its food - arborescent hydroids of the Sertularella genus (usually identified as Sertularella diaphanous or Sertularella quadridens). If you are searching for sea...

SIX SEPARATE SOCKETS – Hexabranchus

Hexabranchus sanguineus The name says it all. It has six gills - Hexabranchus, and is blood-coloured - sanguineus. This species was originally described from the Red Sea. Specimens from that region are not red and white mottled as in the images posted here but are a...

UNIQUELY UNITED BUT DECEPTIVE DISPLAY – THE SUCTORIAL FEEDING POROSTOMATA NUDIBRANCHS

UNIQUELY UNITED BUT DECEPTIVE DISPLAY The Suctorial Feeding Porostomata Nudibranchs In a previous NudiNote - The Little Scraper - the radula of sea slugs was discussed. Mention was also made of those sea slugs that do not possess a radula. Among the dorid nudibranchs...

AUTOTOMY – THE SELF SACRIFICE DEFENCE

Autotomy - the Self Sacrifice Defence The ability to cast off a particular section of their anatomy, in order to facilitate escape from a predator, is possessed by a wide range of animals. Although the phenomenon, even in the Mollusca, had been recognized...

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.

Miamira moloch

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

News and Updates

A new page will be coming to the website soon. RECORD OF FINDS will be a chronological archive of the dive and intertidal surveys undertaken by The Team detailing the species finds and circumstances.