Species group · Gastropods
WAnimals has 4 species of nudibranch, spread across 4 families (Chromodorididae, Discodorididae, Facelinidae, Tritoniidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 63 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It digests hydroids without setting off their stinging cells and moves them intact to the tips of its cerata, where it uses them for its own defence.
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The ringed rhinophores on its head serve to track its prey by chemical scent.
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It steals its prey's weapons. It eats hydrozoans and, instead of digesting their stinging cells, keeps them intact and moves them into sacs called cnidosacs, at the tips of the cerata on its back.
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The adults camouflage themselves by taking on the shade of the soft coral colony they live on and feed from.
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The largest individuals exceed 20 cm, an extraordinary size for a cold-water nudibranch.
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It is the largest nudibranch in the British Isles: it reaches 20 cm.
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It can deliberately shed fragments of the edge of its mantle to distract a predator, a form of autotomy uncommon among nudibranchs.
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It self-mutilates to escape: when attacked it sheds pieces of its mantle margin, which writhe and distract the predator while it flees. The margin regenerates afterwards.
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