Phyllidia coelestis Bergh, 1905
- Location
- Tengan(Kombu), Okinawa Island (East coast), Okinawa, Japan
- Date
- 2015/06/25
- Length
- 35mm
- Depth
- 5.0m
- Water temperature
- 28.0℃
Description
A medium-sized phyllidiid, preserved body length 32 mm, width 11 mm, height 7 mm. In life the dorsum is sky-blue ("himmelblau"); the proper back, within the wide mantle margin, is traversed by three velvety-black bands. The median band bears yellow tubercles, and the intervening blue bands show similar tubercles. The rhinophores are yellow. After preservation the colour pattern remains identical in arrangement but becomes much paler: the blue turns bluish-grey, and the tubercles on the dorsal bands become yellowish. The grey-blue strips separating the three black bands join at two or three places and run together behind the anal opening. The grey-blue mantle margin is densely set with very small grey nodules, with single, somewhat larger and slightly yellowish nodules interspersed near the black bands.Distribution
Type locality: a reef at Saleyer (southern Sulawesi, Indonesia). Widely distributed across the Indo-West Pacific.Etymology
The specific epithet coelestis is the Latin adjective "of the sky, heavenly, sky-blue", referring to the sky-blue dorsal ground colour in life ("himmelblau").Remarks
A sponge-feeding phyllidiid.References
- Phyllidia coelestis Bgh. n. sp., Bergh R. (1905). Die Opisthobranchiata der Siboga-expedition. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.11223
- ソライロイボウミウシ（新称）, 奥谷喬司. (1994). サンゴ礁の生きもの. 東海大学出版会.
- アオヒダイボウミウシ（新称）, 益田一ほか. (1996). 海岸動物 (フィールド図鑑). 補訂版第2版. 東海大学出版会.
A Kindle field guide by the site author
Kimoto N. (2026). Sea Slugs of Japan & the Indo-Pacific, 2nd Edition.
Kindle Edition
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Photos of Phyllidia coelestis
Same Genus Nudibranchs
Similar Colors Nudibranchs
Academic Database
Sea slug observation data is available in international marine biodiversity databases.