Elegant Phyllidia

Phyllidia elegans is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Phyllidiidae.

Description

This animal can be distinguished by a pale-colored foot having a single median longitudinal black line on the sole, a light pink dorsal tubercles commonly tipped in yellow, and black lines on the lateral margins of the sole. The rhinophores are yellow.

Distribution

This species has been found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Andaman Sea, Myanmar, the Red Sea, the Mariana Islands, north Sulawesi, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

Biology

It feeds on sponges. As their small mouth lacks a radula and other buccal hard parts, they are known as predators adapted for sucking on sponges.