Diversidoris crocea (Rudman, 1986)
25mm

This species is occasionally seen at Enewetak and Kwajalein Atolls. It's actually rather easy to look for, since it virtually always is on a yellow sponge thought to be Aplysilla sulphurea or possibly a species of Darwinella. This sponge, and consequently the nudibranch, lives under chunks of dead coral on shallow subtidal intertidal reefs and occasionally on lagoon pinnacles at depths of 3 to 10 meters. 30 measured specimens ranged from 9 to 25mm in length.

The two specimens below were not on their normal yellow sponge, but a colony was nearby.

The specimen below, found on 2 March 2009 under a rock on a Kwajalein Atoll lagoon reef at 15m depth, had a very undulose mantle and darker orange on the margin than is usually seen. These photos also show how long the tail is in this species.

A video capture of a specimen from 2 March 2009 shows it with an egg mass deposited on rock grazed mostly clean of its prey sponge.

Created 18 December 2005
Updated 1 July 2012

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