Author: Undescribed

Order: Nudibranchia  Family: Goniodorididae

Maximum Size: 7 mm

Sightings: Anilao, Philippines; Lembeh, Indonesia

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Trapania sp. 08 Undescribed

A small nudibranch up to 7 mm in length. The body is elongated, essentially tubular, widest at the region of the gill, tapering posteriorly and lacking any notal edge. The whole of the body surface and all appendages are covered in small knob-like papillae, including the rhinophore stalks, base of gill branches, oral tentacles and the well-developed propodial tentacles. The rhinophores are large with long stalks, bulbous clubs with three to four “coarse” lamellae and finish with a projecting tip. The extrarhinophoral and extrabranchial processes are large, curved medially into semicircles and similarly covered in the papillae. The gills comprise three highly pinnate branches the bases of each being quite sturdy.

The colouration is uniformly opaque white entirely, apart from the translucent rhinophore stalks. There are some small dark spots, mostly on the papillae tips.

Feeds on entoprocts, also known as kamptozoans (Phylum Entoprocta), that live in association with certain sponges.

This species appears similar to the Trapania sp. 6 of NSSI, 2018, except the oral tentacles do not possess  the distinctive dark bands of that species recorded from Indonesia.

David A. Mullins – May 2025

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