The large brown dorid out on open ground, and firm-bodied where its lookalikes are soft.
A large firm dorid to about 20 cm, oval and rather flat, the mantle tan to grey-brown or olive and raised into a network of low ridges down the back, with a thick stiff margin. The rhinophores and gill plume are brown and retract completely, leaving a plain brown oval. The large soft dendrodorids reach a similar size and colour and are the usual confusion: Dendrodoris tuberculosa slumps and lets its mantle margin ripple as it crawls, where this animal holds its shape, and its sculpture is a set of separate rounded warts rather than a raised network.
Feeds on sponges. Found on silt and rubble as well as on reef, usually in the open by day, and one of the few sea slugs on a muck site large enough to be picked up from several metres away. Recorded from about 3 to 25 m. The species name refers to the tufted look of the ridged back.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
