This Gymnodoris was moderately common at Enewetak Atoll with more than 50 specimens found. It is less common but still present at Kwajalein and has been photographed at Majuro. Most were seen on lagoon reefs and pinnacles, under rocks during the day or out crawling in the open at night. Thirty measured specimens ranged from 6 to 20mm in length. Larger than about 12mm long (the two bottom photos), they seem to become more high-sided rather than tubular and the gills seem to expand. The radula of both "forms" is very similar, so we assume they are all the same species. We long called these Gymnodoris plebeia but they don't really seem to match that species and Gosliner et al (2018) have what appears to be these animals as an unidentified Gymnodoris sp. 20. We also have them from Hawaii. Gymnodoris sp. e089 was first reported in the Marshalls from Enewetak Atoll as Gymnodoris plebeia by Johnson & Boucher (1984).
The innards clearly show through the mostly transparent skin.
The specimen below just finished laying down a mass or orange eggs.
The specimens below were all relative large for the species, between 12 and 20mm.
The two photos below show one of four specimens found separately over one weekend in August 2011 in a lagoon Halimeda patch at a depth of about 8m. These were the first specimens we had seen in a couple of years.
This one was in an algae patch on 6 May 2012.
This one was under a rock on the lagoon side of Ennubuj Island on 11 November 2017.
Below is a specimen from Majuro found by Ken Cone and Beth Van Zummeren.
Created 1 January 2007
Updated 14 May 2021