Author: Undescribed

Order: Nudibranchia  Family: Discodorididae

Maximum Size: 20 mm

Sightings: Anilao, Philippines

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Thordisa sp. 02 Undescribed

Uniformly dark-brown/grey in colour with compound tubercles some raised on substantial stalks and giving a stellate appearance from above. The very tips of each branch of a compound tubercle carries the smallest of white tips. The rhinophores are black, flecked in white with white apices. The gill is cream to pale brown with white flecks.

Feeds on sponges. Very cryptic when on its dark purple food sponge.

This is the Thordisa sp. 11 of NSSI, 2018

David A. Mullins – January 2025

References:
– Chan, J. M. & Gosliner, T. M. (2007). Preliminary Phylogeny of Thordisa Nudibranchia: Discodorididae) with Descriptions of Five New Species. The Veliger, 48(4): 284–308.

– Gosliner, T. M., Valde ́s, A ́. & Behrens, D. W. (2018). Nudibranch & Sea Slug Identification – Indo-Pacific, 2nd Edition. New World Publications, Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

– Donohoo, S. A. & Gosliner, T. M. (2024). Variability in the white spot: a new genus and species of Discodorididae (Nudibranchia) from the central and western Pacific Ocean. Journal of Molluscan Studies 90: eyad027