Pink and covered in tall soft papillae, a small dorid on sponge and rubble.
A small dorid, usually 15 to 25 mm and occasionally to about 3 cm, pale pink to yellow and covered over the whole mantle with tall soft conical papillae, each drawn out to a fine point and often a shade darker at the tip. The rhinophores are pink and lamellate, and the gill is a small circle of pinkish branches towards the rear. The papillae are long enough to give the animal a shaggy outline, which is what identifies it at a glance.
It feeds on sponges and is found on rubble, under loose rock and on sponge-encrusted debris, by day as well as at night. The colour is consistent enough that it is not easily confused with anything else on the same ground; the difficulty is size, and it is normally found by working slowly over a small patch rather than by covering distance. Recorded from about 3 to 25 m.
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.
